Melancholy Skies
Bring Out Your Dead
You arrived as a kiss with copper on your breath
to rouse a community from their everyday dead.
Spinning sugar across dour concrete skies,
you blaze honey trails where the crows fly.
Sultry and syrupy, you sashay over this land;
whispering wonderment from a pout of peachy lip.
Glossing weathered cars stood tired in rows,
adding jewels like rubies to pot-holed roads,
regaling stony tenements with gilded panes,
schmoozing into mill ponds with heart-winning flames.
***
Slack-jawed, we bleed out from our back-to-back lives
to make honeysuckle media from your tides of ruddy skies.
Filtering out the inky thumb of the hand caught up our skirts.
Silkening its shadow, softening where it hurt.
Drenching collective memory in sepia's forgiving glow.
Opportunity's hard knocks tonight will not be put on show.
***
This is our golden half-hour
in a winter of discontent.
A fireside hug
in a room of wet cement.
We will rake over our coals
and forget what they meant.
Peel away our layers and
ease our souls with sighs.
We shall decompose the rigour
of our hard-working lives
as we swaddle together
beneath your melancholy skies.
***
Notes from the author:
Around once a winter in the North West of England, the skies blaze as the sun sets, and social media is flooded with pictures as our communities share the awe we feel in response to it.
We have the highest rainfall and the oldest, decrepit industry in the country. When the skies burn red, as rare as it is, it can feel like the magic in our land has remembered us.
About the Creator
Caroline Jane
Open hearted maverick.
Reader insights
Outstanding
Excellent work. Looking forward to reading more!
Top insights
Heartfelt and relatable
The story invoked strong personal emotions
Compelling and original writing
Creative use of language & vocab
Eye opening
Niche topic & fresh perspectives
Expert insights and opinions
Arguments were carefully researched and presented
Easy to read and follow
Well-structured & engaging content
On-point and relevant
Writing reflected the title & theme
Excellent storytelling
Original narrative & well developed characters
Keep reading
More stories from Caroline Jane and writers in Poets and other communities.
Comments (33)
How did I miss this? I love it. Beautiful imagery.
You're welcome
NICE
The flow was amazing. The content, engaging. Inspiration found its way and it paid off! Congrats!
Metaphorical masterpiece, very nicely written.
💯❤️
Goregous imagery and powerful words!
I love the poem and the back story about your community. Feels like a beautiful awakening. Beautiful❤️ Congratulations on your top story.
Nice wok kee it up.
I appreciate "Melancholy Skies" for its evocative imagery and the way it captures the emotional complexity of a dark and stormy sky. The poem creates a vivid and atmospheric setting, using sensory details like the smell of rain and the heaviness of the clouds to draw the reader in. I also appreciate the way the poem explores the speaker's emotions, moving from a sense of apprehension to a deeper sense of melancholy and nostalgia. The line about remembering a lost love is particularly powerful, adding a poignant layer of meaning to the poem.
Timeless! Congratulations on Top Story! 💕
Lovely, lovely! May the magic always remember.
Awesome Caroline, I like fireside hugs to, very nice congratulations 😀
Beautiful!
Absolutely stunning. ❤️
Beautiful poem ! Congrats 🥰
At last! You have earned this a million times over. So overdue for recognition. You've outdone yourself Caroline. This is magnificent. 💕💕💕
Absolutely stunning all the way through! The line that stuck with me the most was: “A fireside hug In a room of wet cement” Congrats on Top Story!! Bravo and well deserved!! You’re up one more subscriber today. :)
How beautiful!
Congratulations on Top Story!! So well deserved, I loved it :)
So romantic the imagery 🥰
I’m no poetry expert, but the imagery in this exceptional. I would read poetry more if it was like this.
Beautiful and interesting back story to it Congratulations
gorgeous work Caroline! Congratulations on your TOP STORY! 🎉
Gorgeous ❤️