Damian Balassone: ‘When the School Bell Chimed’ and ‘Ovid Lockdown’

When the School Bell Chimed

When the school bell chimed and the shifting sky
was dimmed by brooding clouds,
I hastily timed a brilliant lie
and escaped the schoolyard crowd.

Through the woodlands like a maverick mare,
I crashed past autumn leaves.
Dark turned to light when I saw her there,
when I found Jacindavieve.

Her green eyes danced like butterflies
her hair swayed to and fro,
I stood entranced, transfigured by
her alabaster glow,

her elegant Arabian nose,
her skin so rich and rare,
her cheeks that glimpsed a red, red rose,
her loom of jet black hair.

While schoolboys puffed cheap cigarettes,
we fled to sparkling streams,
and soon enough our silhouettes
were locked in a synchronised dream.

Damian Balassone

Ovid Lockdown

In the time of COVID
you become like Ovid:

banished by Augustus
to Scythia’s Black Sea,
scribbling verse to no one
for all eternity.

Damian Balassone