Sophia Argyris | Ashes
Time burns each day down to embers, leaves ashes.
We walked as far as the sea, watched water weave ashes
that were once your body into threads of drifting tide.
Now, lungs still full of loss, it seems I breathe ashes.
They taste the same as that mountain place I told you of,
fields burning after harvest, and carried on the breeze: ashes.
Autumn comes in muted colours, cups evening in her palms.
Like a Sadhu her skin’s smudged grey with - I believe – ashes.
She’s speaking of another winter, bringing with it January,
a full year gone, time moving on with no reprieve. Ashes
swirl in my vision, it could be snow, this falling, except it
doesn't let light in. I hold my hands out and receive ashes.
Grief’s fire is never doused, an endless pyre, not even time
can touch it. From its lava heart it only bequeaths ashes
that cover everything, like Pompeii, but people say
there’s still life to be found Sophia, hidden beneath ashes.
We walked as far as the sea, watched water weave ashes
that were once your body into threads of drifting tide.
Now, lungs still full of loss, it seems I breathe ashes.
They taste the same as that mountain place I told you of,
fields burning after harvest, and carried on the breeze: ashes.
Autumn comes in muted colours, cups evening in her palms.
Like a Sadhu her skin’s smudged grey with - I believe – ashes.
She’s speaking of another winter, bringing with it January,
a full year gone, time moving on with no reprieve. Ashes
swirl in my vision, it could be snow, this falling, except it
doesn't let light in. I hold my hands out and receive ashes.
Grief’s fire is never doused, an endless pyre, not even time
can touch it. From its lava heart it only bequeaths ashes
that cover everything, like Pompeii, but people say
there’s still life to be found Sophia, hidden beneath ashes.
Sophia Argyris currently lives in Oxfordshire in the UK, was born in Belgium to an English and Greek family, and grew up mostly in Scotland. Her poems have been published in various places, including Ink Sweat & Tears, Magma, Prole, Spelt Magazine and Under the Radar. Her short collection "How Do the Parakeets Stay Green?" was published in 2014 by Indigo Dreams Publishing.
