Antonia Alexandra Klimenko | Green

Green

were the days of my unripened youth —
the years I spent in envious pursuit   
of happiness
Green  Green
the color of spring
a call to life 
the joy that would sing
in my heart
when you    sprang to mind

Green
were the promises    I made
the fibs the stories    you forgave
the imagined forests   in which we got lost 
the flowerbeds    we rolled and tossed in
the branches    that set us apart

Green
were the fields   the valleys
of highs and lows —
blanket of comfort 
blanket of sorrow 
How deep was my grave 
once you were gone —
this young heart breaking
with each new dawn

Green
the scent   of memories that linger
that climb like vines 
that grow like fingers
Leaves that whisper to the wind —
the moon growing pale
the moon growing thin

Time . . . time . . . time . . . letting go


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A former San Francisco Poetry Slam Champion, Antonia Alexandra Klimenko is widely published. Her work appears, among other publications, in XXI Century World Literature (she represents France) and Maintenant: Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art, archived at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. She is Writer/Poet in Residence for SpokenWord Paris. Her collected poems On the Way to Invisible is forthcoming, Spring of 2021.