Poetry 2014 Shortlist, Verina Berryl Rasquinha

An Ode To The Skies

You paint your curtains
In crimson splinters of the sun;
Streaks of graying blinds
Creep across your torso
In desolate glory.
Your canvas stretches w-i-d-e
and clear,
Paying little attention to the artist
That b-r-e-a-t-h-e-s untamed colours
From his palette
Into your lungs.
You play vividly with tiny
Insignificant creatures that
Swoop in skilled patterns
amidst your passages
That reek (now) of obnoxious gases.
You whisper your identity intimately
Into the mediocre waves of the oceans;
That reflect your inscrutable
Splendour in every drop
That lies awake in its belly.
The ladder to the golden gates of heaven dwell
In the eternity of your realm;
The rungs of which I shall
Climb with every ounce of energy that I may muster.