IGNITION
An ecstasy, situated
Between him and me.
NEW
Skidding over
Bumps: lumps
In his throat, throttled
Down with sheer
Glide: the pride
Of Fate that bears
Souls on, beyond
The room they
Live in to the one
Upstairs they didn’t
Know was there.
STAGE
Apart, the light
Was glorious.
Beach-ball-bats glistened.
With him, it is
Different.
The bench is the
Stage and all the rest
Scenery.
DISBELIEF
In reality
Time swept
On, no less
Neat than
Before nailed
Feet, freed,
Leapt on.
COWBOY
Clint shoots, I hear the clocks
Tick next to mine: his are deeper
And faster, keeping
Time for larger kidneys and gall
Bladder or me, I hope.
NOCTURNE
I’ll write
You a word or
Two, here in
The dark, here’s
My word sounding
Bright through the
Night,
To you over
There, squared
Out in my mind’s
Eye, through the
Cold dead window
Blocked out with
Ice-mist then
Blind.
BEATING
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.
WAIT
Let him come to me
When he will,
If he wants to,
Feel my frame
Touch his, back to
Chest and chest
To back, ribs to
Cheek and head
To chin.
PATIENT
Let him look
Away and dwell
There for a while
Tasting air, different
From mine.
POWERLESS
We can’t demand
Love anymore than
We can change the
Colour of our eyes
But we can give
It and so free
Ourselves from the
Burden of Self.
THANKS
For the
Feeling stealing
Time from other
Thoughts.
You tapped
In Morse
From the
Finger to over-
And-out my woe.
PRESENT
The talk is of
Chatter the chat
Is of less but
The eyes watch
It all wise in
Quiet waiting
For later to
Be laid bare.
ABSENT
I wait
At the traffic lights
Filling time with you.
DEPEND
The deep and
Gentle rise and fall,
What’s that he said? That
Thudding like the ebb in
Warm wide water,
Refuge for the frenzied waves.
RESET
She thanked him for
Finding the eyes she’d dropped,
For washing them clean
With a salt hug,
The best kind:
Rock.
TEPID
She found herself
Asking him
How his day
Went.
He liked how she
Bathed his stories
In warm water
Before bedtime.
She liked his way
Of being the
Full stop to end
A long day.
Together their
Effort made a kind
Of prose, as yet
Without a plot.
LONG
I want to be the one
You feel
Instinct pull
You to –
The stillness
In your heart between
Each beat.
NOTE
I’m sorry I forgot
To write, Life’s
Distractions were too
Many and delicious
To make me crave
For you.
You were there, but
Rather distant
Undemanding and
Discrete, like a
Statue in the shadows
Smiling through the
Gloom.
I’m sorry I forgot
You,left you
Waiting for my words
I’m sorry if you feel
Neglected, be assured,
You cross my thoughts,
Dont count the hours-
Time it creeps, but life
Goes on in
Leaps and bounds,
Whether or not you
Hear from me.
SCREEN
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.
CLEARING
Now is the sharp hour bright
Enough to cast clear
Shadows that can be read aloud.
CATASTROPHE
You shook me though
You didn’t know it
You gave me a home
And then you locked
Me out and left
Me tapping at the
Windows and sitting
On the doorstep
Out in the cold.
FADING
Echoing back into
The cave of shadows,
You were the major
Chord, now you are the
Minor key that I
Tune into now and
Then, like opening
An empty biscuit
Tin just to pick at
Crumbs.
Put the lid back on.
REVERB
Wherever you are
There is love,
Wherever I am
There is love,
If we meet,
There is love,
If we don’t,
There is love,
If you meet another,
There is love,
If we meet again,
There is love,
All loves lead home.
LAND
Are you there? My little one
My little mister, my mister?
Our time together was the
Shortest and the deepest,
I saw it then, I see it now, from
Above, like an old ruin, etched
In the crops, impossible to know
How old or how rich it was.
Being Every Day 