City Sonnets - 5 and 6

I just changed the blog to this font. I like it. It's a much better font.

Here are two more sonnets ... there's going to be flippin' loads of them ... when i get an idea, I run it to exhaustion

RIO DE JANEIRO

A photo cheaply printed on a plate

On Corcovado of a squinting boy

In baseball cap and shorts, stood stiffly straight,

His hands held down in front, a gesture coy

And quite mysterious to the man himself

Many years later, dusting souvenirs

And rearranging memories on the shelf

Of unconsidered moments through the years.

And then he gets it! Those unbending arms

Which point to hell with such a narrowing

Raw sense of shame are cowed by the wide stance

Of the Redeemer overshadowing.

No mimicry, no imagery allowed –

The boy observant, arms cast down, head bowed.

ST ANDREWS

That day you drove me in, the town was lapped

In the late summer light, and I was hooked

In love with it for good. Those four years trapped

By old stone on the ledge of the East Neuk

Awash with Pringle, Callaway and beer,

I was abuzz with rainless blasts of wind

Imbued with ancient messages of fear

For callow youths who wouldn’t know they’d sinned.

That day, as planes of Leuchars roared above,

you told of childhood Elie holidays,

the sea, the castle, Old Course all at once

ransacked my breath and ever held my gaze.

Years later, from Rule’s Tower, I looked back the way

And saw us, happy-sad, that late September day.