Mascara Literary Review

Issue Six -November 2009

Paul Fearne

Paul Fearne is a poet and philosopher working and residing in Melbourne, Australia. His poems have appeared in a number of journals including Westerly, Stylus, Unusual Work and verb-ate-him. His philosophical work has appeared in journals such as Consciousness Literature and the Arts. He is currently undertaking a PhD in Philosophy and LaTrobe University, and has completed a Master’s degree from the University of Melbourne.

A Dream of Coral

let the light of our hesitation bend around the moon

and clothe the sea in memories

let the sound of the morning

sweep this cloud of butterflies

into the uncertainty of tomorrow

there is a pause in the turning of the sky

it marks the sorrow the birds feel

that the winter has forgotten its home

and the snow is reticent to melt

a sea horse searches for its past

but the future is all it knows

and in time

it will become a dream of coral

and wander further

than it ever has before

The Regrets of Dagon Flies

a clothes line whirls in the breeze

on it

sway pegged dreams

and the regrets of dragon flies

a rustling catches our ears

it is the litter of autumn

and the wandering of our fears

in a rain that has not fallen for a thousand years

the simplicity of our forgetting

curls in a gentle mist

and reminds us

that the last wish of a starfish

is all the dawn needs

to chase away the morning’s cobwebs

and their gentle intransigence

a nervous pride of clouds

(a fellowship that has never known a moments rest)

gather up our best intentions

and scatter them throughout the sea

and into the hopes of time

as she whispers the trembling names

of all those lost silences

that have kept us searching

searching for the dust of the night’s companionship

and the kind wisps of longing

that sleep in the ancient abbey

we once knew as our home