Quick, Silver Love, And A Love Of Quicksilver

• Maddy Mcc, Grade 8
• Poetry
• 2013

An hourglass of mercury, and each drop so divine;
Like love ‘tis most alluring, with want to make you mine.
Each tiny drop so precious, like life it falls so fast;
Crumbling of lovely empires, that’d never really last.

Begging you to touch was it, so pleasing to the eye;
But so dangerous and risk filled it is, you never dared to try;
Shrouded in the shimmer, or swathed in mysteries;
Tempted taunting suitors, owning clouded histories.

It started as a movement, but it so quickly split;
All the hopes of love, kindled, snuffed, re-lit;
The smallest glimmer of prospect, a loving shining pool;
Then splash, a perfect diamond, now a shattered jewel.

If you leave it gentle, free, then it will stay;
Grasping, strangling, clutching, watch as it darts away.
‘Quicksilver in the hand’ said she, and mercury in the palm;
Maddened loving, loving madness and storms before the calm.

Based on the quote by Dorothy Parker ‘Love is Quicksilver in the hand, leave the fingers open, and it stays, clutch it and it darts away.’