And so I will grow roses
And enthuse everyone with Jasmine, having sharpened
Everything with lemons.
Let children chew pawns
From my fresh chess set,
While I eat geranium
Chocolate with orange.
Garden, house and food –
May I never forget these blessings
And always look up
From my table with thanks.
There is love, in the
Air, breath it in,
Breathe it out, leave
It at that, do not
Try to fill the lungs
With blood or the
Heart with air.
I will love some heart
So big, if he sank,
His wreck would be huge,
Marked out from Space, for
Aliens to find.
You are a world in a
Man, you are my heart in
My hand and my stomach
In a cup that can never
Be drained, you warm up
My soul with your pulse,
Your nostrils and your breaths,
Every hair that moves
On your face is lucky to be
Born near a warmth so
Keen it could run rings around
Me after circling the moon.
We lock our hearts away
In a strong case made of
Glass you can see but not
Penetrate and behind each
Plate we line up the cups with
Matching saucers, best bit turned
To face the audience while behind
It cracks choke on dust and the
Wood collects gloom for want of
Other company; these cups have
Nothing to say, locked away for
So long, they have forgotten how
To warm their bones with tea, how
To handle the soothing, be cradled in
Jammy fingers and strawberry thumb
Why are you afraid to look me in the
Eyes when you speak? I wonder
What would happen if someone
Said, stop blocking, be released ?
Risk choking on
Serenity, consumed unexpectedly
And take it, hot – cathartic
Spice. Feel nose sweat
And throat burn as all
Heart’s pores open
And tears boil over,
Wheeling hot tracks
Through the ashes of Fear.
Thread me a moon
Through your ear
To my heart
Booming – that irregular
Jump – start tune.
Sink my flutter
Deep in the velvet
Depths of our kinned psyches,
Twinned by Chance
Across split wombs.
Crop my vagaries
Sage them trim.
With your sharp –
Wit – reason, order
My din into sound –
Bunked rhymes, chimes
Ringing, deft
In time.
1.
Take me through
This
Take me out
Heal my thoughts
To soothe my limbs
And organs,
Gorgons raise their
Ugly heads again
Rising to attention.
Stop them dead, let
Them loll, spewing
Out the dirt
In Death’s dark dribble.
2.
Protect my heart,
It’s only soft
And already bruised
With coffee and liquor.
Keep it firm but
Flexible, with space
To expand and
Compress and play
Its song.
Make it hot to
Clot the wound
And send the
Brain curt
Response to any
Happenstance
Likely to lead
Both astray.
[6th October]
Wave it through
This blip of the
Heart that makes
Hands reach to
Stop the throat with
Something stodgy, grainy
Overdose.
Wave it off,
Now is here.
( 5th September 2009)
Take yourself out of
Yourself, just far
Enough to see
Without your glasses
Where the trouble is,
The sore and stinging
Itch, the blister,
There, beside the
Heart, where
Anger and frustration
Have rubbed freckles
Raw and no more
Skin is left to
Shield the soul.
Having stopped to
Look, having seen
The pain, the plaster
Will do to stop
Infection spilling
From the broken
Rim of wound.
Soon the blood will
Do its work and anger will subsist,
Just be sure to
Keep things clean
With love and watchful
Pride.
Being Every Day 