#2470 -- you'll be sorry

 

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you’ll be sorry

ekphrastic for John Molvig’s 1956 ‘Bride and Groom’

 

to speke of wo that is in mariage

              – Chaucer’s Wife of Bath

 

it’s just this one day dress up

arrive in this armour

 

it’s with the broad brush

made indistinct

 

never been in a suit

this is first white formal hire

 

and what’s a mouth for?

who’ll say? 

 

these are the eyes of doubt

here’s a moment

 

tin cans tied on

shhh... slips away

 

I do I do I did I won’t

 

chartreuse suburban

a world of blur

 

hands of corpses these are

 

just touch and I’ll be true 

#2469 -- into the blue

 

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into the blue

for wise surprise

 

or the blank, if preferred

 

and beside yourself

that’s ever up

 

up with a wish

come cloudless

 

imagine a place where nothing is known

 

guess forth

 

you’ll still hear the news

the leafblower

 

still entertain the just-what’s-there

 

have not a thought in mind

but here we are

 

and breathe

make it a seadeep too

 

tell it on

 

think of a well

and you’ll fall

#2468 -- name the place and it's gone

 

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name the place and it’s gone

ekphrastic for Arthur Streeton’s ‘from my camp’ (Sirius Cove)

 

a clock slips by

 

fata morgana our city is

 

this stone and the salt wash

 

light of such an afternoon

 

smoke becomes a cloud

gulls float

 

loose lines could be a boat

 

there’s no one close to depict

 

a ship here once upon a time

name water after it

#2467 -- Spring!

 

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Spring!

 

who’ll sing first to wake the sun?

   rouse flower?

who rises to occasion this?

 

Spring!

and the colours come

 

air blossoms

least of bees belonging

 

socks up, boots on

who beckons from doors?

 

first task to untrouble

 

tendril and twig

as if mind expanding

 

and out

see up to a treetop tussle 

 

Spring and rude thoughts

a path green through grass

moss with mist

go on for a woods day deep

 

Spring, dear friend among our seasons

called from far

as unknown heretofore

our very own

bright spread

and mourn those past

 

Spring!

somebody lands on me

how many legs will you have?

and a wing?  I see right through

 

Spring!

pretty dead things to profit all

shadows, echoes and reflections

 

Spring!

ducks landing

and they’ll take off too

 

all as if from nowhere

headed that way

 

Spring!

and we’re home safe now

 

there’s no one here to thank, to blame

 

it’s just the turning of one world

all that to which we’ve survived

 

like a warm zephyr with which one is swept

 

who will call me to a name?

that is not a thing required

 

no, we must honour it!

who’ll raise a sun to sing?

 

#2466 --- in the aftertime

 

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2.x.26

in the aftertime

 

you’ll tune for someone’s last signal

 

play the old discs where still indoors

              and toxic out

 

as if it were all that was held in the air

   all that the air could hold

 

return to our dust, thumb pages

 

yes, there’s what’s to it? 

             and it glows

 

will it be a matter of waiting

 

after the terrors and still

a world of unburied bones

 

we all did this

who said no?

 

walk in

who’s to know where we’ve gone?

 

word still keeps under a stone

and sometimes there’s nothing there

                        no one

 

twig in boot, go on

#2465 -- a window for the moon

 

2465

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a window for the moon

 

a world too fast

 

a door to bring from the sun

 

precious least

 

I will be discovered late in the piece

 

hide all the facts I can

 

a room with all those facts till forever

 

here in a far reach of winter

 

go wrong and keep going

 

spend a few days out of my head

 

then there’s some bounce to the tune

 

#2464 -- jasmine time

 

2464

7.271

30.ix.26

jasmine time

 

grey touch of sky

 

wings and leafstrew

 

songs of a thicket

 

breathe on

 

melodious nose

 

who won’t flower next?

who won’t unfurl?

 

green

in the remembrance of rain

 

you forget yourself to be here