He Kept Softly Speaking Affirmations Poem by R.A. Burleigh

I sat beneath this old professor once
who wore a horned skin and coal smudged suits
I sat with ease and dreamed his sunken eyes saw
and held more than the truths of mild daylight

I listened to the guttural strings of Tennyson
melodic as some turtle-bird desperate in the mud
seeing spring days below me in a park, and awkward girls
preening for motherhood; I watched them bloom and blow

spinnying light around his talk
as if they too heard the sleeve of thunder
that he kept rolled up against the aging
sun storm of his darkened head

RB