CÔTE D’AZUR

We shun golden smiles and tans of tourist

towns and beaches, glide our slender sailboat

past Monaco short of Menton, and twist

our slow way above azure bay on foot

to Grotte du Vallonnet, found by a girl

in ’58 who sought calcite for cheap

jewelry rather than gunsights. Ancient world

of creek and cave opens to room with heaped

pudding walls and sand-sediment flooring.

We gaze and breathe in Jurassic air, sense

growling presence of bear, sharp grating sting

of saber-tooth. Love, we exist in tense

lives a million years past, a million years

hence, don’t we? Melding all laughter and tears?

Roger Armbrust

June 24, 2012

SMALL VOICE DEEP WITHIN

convincing us of whisper’s vast power

controlling thought’s rhythm, heart’s enthralling

echo, breathing’s payoff, each cleansing hour

keeping us honest. Its quiet calling

endures. So we respond like alert wolves

retreating from its startling sound in fear,

finding where hell really lies, our stark howls

signaling savage lives and stinging tears.

Or we surrender to its subtle song,

our solitary audience plying

respect with mute prayer, patient bows, and long

vigils of silence, faithful hounds lying

in wait for the soft voice to site our place

to paw earth, sniff air, start our sacred chase.

Roger Armbrust

June 12, 2012

QUEEN OF THE NETHERLANDS

When I come visit you, will you dub me

king, dance for me on Central Park’s great lawn,

your favorite Beethoven symphony

or Chopin étude caressing our dawn

light and us? I’ll humbly study your grace,

our world’s only ballerina, revel

in classic glow of your van Honthorst face

in The Matchmaker. Who knows what level

heaven finds in existence. Can’t it live

here with us? Back home in your living room,

secure in our privacy, will you give

me your lithe arms, wrap me in tender womb

of your caress as we did at the Leap?

Will you dance with me? Let our souls fall deep

until we whirl and meld to one, then sleep?

Roger Armbrust

June 9, 2012