#578 - three poems - what shall we do nest year, powers of distraction, price of vigilance is eternity

 

2.viii.21

578

2.213

three poems

 

what shall we do nest year?

for Sarah St Vincent Welch

 

when every month’s of Sundays

and all the moons are blue

 

a peach blossom wild creek

tangle with ferns

 

we will live in a typographical error

and go to press that way

 

chorus of twig and leaf to prove

the birds beginning Spring  

 

 

powers of distraction

for common or garden poets

 

bodies for one and heads filled

 

day of the haircut comes

 

all through the garden now bush

thing leading to another

 

war and lull at the lower reaches

 

lost nights a little spill of stars

 

are there thresholds below which

we’re each time caught?

 

the individual may not evolve

yet reflect, observe

 

my skin a journey

and further in the blood

               but where?

 

principally compelled by quirk

all through the dreaming day

 

 

thin end of the wedge

or

one false step

or

the price of vigilance

 

if we don’t discourage those pigeons

gutters nested, drainpipes, chimney

     under eaves and over – cheeky

they’ll soon have the roof off …

then!

 

they’ll be sitting up at our table

pecking cheerily through the pantry

fridge

 

all innocence, coo, impressions of dove

like butter wouldn’t melt…

most natural thing in the world

 

and us?

we’ll be on a flimsy bough

mercy of the wind

lifting tail feathers

for a shit now and then

eyes out for fresh worm

 

little dinosaur suspicions

jealous of a whim