Eleni Cay – Five Poems

Love Forever

The address you wrote on her hand
with a blue stylo pen may not let her
arrive where she belongs. 

Sealed with your kiss,
she now travels in foreign cars.
They write new words on her back,
cheap quotes, shopping lists.

They tread on her, leave muddy scars.  
But you can’t control her whereabouts.
You can only hope that one day,
the wind brings back your envelope.

Snowflakes

Long, long time ago, the Sun
imposed upon the Moon the duty
to continuously change position.

Since then, no matter how hard she tries
the Moon loses feathers from her dark side.

In the cold winters, white petals glazed with
the streetlamp night fall with me into your mouth,
till the country becomes half-naked.

The weightless touch of their flesh on our skin
is all we will ever know of beauty.

And of sin.

Cloud Wondering

The sunshine weaves birds and clouds
as if they were hopes in a prayer.
I wonder whether the moon and the sun

beat in the same chest or whether they
kiss each other through the air.

I wonder where clouds go for sleep,
where do they find respite when
they can no longer travel.

Do they rain down their pain
or lean on each other, share tears?

I wonder whether you ever wonder about clouds.
Do you watch them pass above the earth,
wait for the candyfloss to appear?

Clouds sugar-coat the sky, they meringue
the space between the heavens and us.

Authenticity

I was born hungry.
For knowledge. For truth.
But the meals prepared in the clouds
are served on earth in pea-sized amounts.

I was born breathless.
inhaling everything the wind sent my way.
But no lungs can choose their air,
we all share the same breath.

I was born thirsty.
For loyalty. For love.
But the rivers churning in human bodies
do not quench the rain falling from above.

I was born sleepless.
Building castles in the air, days and nights.
But dreams are schizophrenic,
they split up the body from the mind.

You were not born.
You have always lived in the split second of a dying rainbow,
avoiding flats and sharps, you guided man’s hand
through the circle of life, from a war bow to a harp.

Double Rainbow

The old king drinks water that bears thirst.
He moves forward and back, left and right
on sixty-four squares of alternating colour.

One day, rain and sun make love. A stunning Iris
in a gauze swimsuit sidestrokes to the ground.
The king commands his sons to catch her.

The eldest schedules her births.
But the more he predicts her appearances,
the smaller she becomes.

The second one monetises her hues.
But the more he calculates her worth,
the less valuable she becomes.

The youngest snaps her for Instagram.
But the more he edits her face,
the uglier she becomes.

They return home with an empty space
from between the rainbow’s arcs.
When the king dies, the sons continue

his chess governance. The kingdom
distils to a soft mirror reflecting
untamed bodies that curve over the sky.

Eleni Cay is a Slovakian-born poet living in the UK. Her most recent poems were published by Eyewear Press in December 2017 and appeared in Atticus Review, Glasgow Review of Books, Poetry Ireland Review and Acumen. Eleni is known for her filmpoems, dancepoems and multimedia poetry, which have been screened at international festivals and featured on Button Poetry. She has been invited to read her poetry at the Harvard University, International Ars Poetica Festival, Frankfurt Book Fair, Villa Trebitsch in Vienna, Blackwell’s in Manchester, Poetry Cafe in London and many other beautiful venues.
More at: http://www.eleni-cay.com/