Then she said it: “Ban…k.” <br />No, I can’t write it the way it sounded; <br />Can’t make you hear what was only for my ear, <br />For the world doesn’t possess sufficient paper, <br />The Earth hasn’t future enough to tell the tale <br />And you would have to be me, which you’re not… <br />So maybe these words won’t work for you, <br />But that won’t stop me <br />[Though there would have been a time it would] <br />And only you know whether it will stop you. <br /> <br />You see, ‘stopping’ is what started it all. <br />No-one else would have perceived it, received it, <br />No-one would have noticed the ‘n’s elonnngation <br />Yet to me, you see, <br />This smallest scintilla, this microscopic moment <br />Hastened over the horizon to gird the globe at such a leisurely pace <br />Like the shock of seeing several ‘selves’ suspended: <br />Multiple ‘Me’s in mirrors fore and aft <br />Disappearing into some perversely populated infinity. <br /> <br />There, between the letters upon her lips <br />She birthed the universe <br />Where we will walk our will and wanting into beauty, into being; <br />Where Time himself takes time out <br />To sit and watch in wonder <br />A scene never seen in all his ancient aeons: <br />The birth of a new eternity, where love outlives his temporal yoke. <br /> <br />The word. <br />The dark spaces hidden deep within <br />Opened slowly, subtly, seductively: <br />A yawning crevasse of tenderly lingering, liquid honey <br />Tingling upon the tip of her tongue <br />In which suns are born yet neither set nor die, <br />Into which we fell, my Love and I.<br /><br />Tony Jolley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/stopping-and-starting/
