Two Poems by Anthony Ward

Rose Tinted

I’ve been pricked by many a rose.

Drawn by the petals that attract me,
Reaching to grab that which exalts my heart,
My thoughts redundant to the pain
I bring upon myself with such careless folly;
Causing my blood to flow and stain my flesh
With such blush of self conscious arousal,
Making me retract my initial advances
And simply admire her aesthetic frivolity.

Re-cognition

Are you that girl

That passed me by on the gilded earth?
Gave me an attack of epistaxis?
Back then, when I’d resigned myself to a future
Where we’d never meet.

Are you that girl

I saw almost a lifetime ago,
In another age?

Or am I merely imagining that you are-

That girl who caught my eye and threw it back,
As if we’d found one another in an instant;
Falling in love for a moment.

Or did I just image it

As I imagine it now?

Anthony Ward tends to fidget with his thoughts in the hope of laying them to rest. He has managed to lay them in a number of literary magazines including The Faircloth Review, The Pygmy Giant, Jellyfish Whispers, Turbulence, Underground, The Bohemyth, Torrid Literature Journal and The Weekenders, amongst others.