Tuesday 30 November 2021

#699 - where they are now

 


 

1.xii.21

699

2.335

where they are now

notes for a song

 

we too

 

am walking down that street

climbing stairs in the ankle height

I am on that corner

book’s a big picture I’m in

 

as with the comfort of such arms

missed home, held

stayed office overnight

so could call it a sleepover

 

mummy daddy did

sometimes a tune too

won’t say the words

in fact we tuck

 

lives far themselves from daylight

kind of shorthand now

am driving and there are no brakes

backseat, idle chat for

 

saw my teeth in the x-ray

knew a long time since

how I would live forever

where they are now

 

ourselves with them

as if because of course belief

distracted, catch at their breezes

sail the might main

 

you always wake to this from words

it’s everyone up to the same old

never been before

won’t finish the conversation

 

kettle won’t come to the boil

sometimes float and sometimes fly

here’s a world as well

tell taxi where

 

it isn’t a place on the map

it’s with the childhood wiring

short and stout

there are no clocks

 

no one’s waiting

or ever arrived on time

kind of loss we cultivate

always worth the edge

 

eternity’s not long

no one checks the passports

just happen to be here

missing from and on

 

never know which way to go

come to an understanding

as solid as the air we breathe

here there everywhere

 

                           and gone






esperanta serio #122 - dia komedio

 



122

dia komedio

 

araneo ne diros 'nun vi mortas'

serpentoj neniam diras 'prenu tion, diablo'

la lupo, inter siaj kruroj, ne havas

tamen konata malhonoro

 

nek ni unufoje, antaŭ ol ni viŝis

malheligas mian koron, pensi tiajn pensojn

de tiuj ankoraŭ plenaj de graco

 

 






 

divine comedy

 

spider won’t say ‘now you die’

snakes never say ‘take that, you fiend’

the wolf, between its legs, has not

yet known disgrace

 

nor we once, before we wiped

dark my heart, to think such thoughts

of those still full of grace






Monday 29 November 2021

#698 - home invasion

 



30.xi.21

698

2.334

home invasion

 

we come home and they’re there

little prayers, godthoughts

as if by all rights

 

a day with the dentist

and they book you for more

no diary yet

 

so it’s abstract

like a year in the chair

to look forward to

 

we come home and they’re everywhere

every place we built they creep

people of a simple solution

 

tails like pitchforks too

no one sees but they lay on hands

they are laying gently into each other

 

apparently there had been a letter

they’ve come to save us, me

pay very little attention

 

one colour

shall we call it devotion?

I harbour unreasonable fear

 

they speak in rumours, low murmur

they have a bus

and palms together for you

 

as you approach

these ones won’t light a candle

it’s as if you’re defending the cubs

 

shepherd them towards the border

each has a future like this and knowledge

funny bunch whom truth sets free

 

it’s like one money changer

single handed have to drive out

the truth and the light

 

see now we built

all these hidey holes for them

they are many I am few

 

bunch of cloud heads

dumb, soulless, that’s the paradox

it’s my job, no one else to do

 

again, they’re asking me

to prove that what’s not isn’t

I can’t even see who’s egging them on

 

so return as a ghost to claim

all here that’s mine

it’s the same with the others

 

that were before

with the animal spirits

the trees

 

I brandish tongue of fire

so the creek can run

so the sun can shine today










esperanta serio #121 - la vento


 


121

la vento

 

ne foriras

io ajn

ĝi kantas

kaj prenas

vortoj

kun ĝi

 

 








 

the wind

 

leaves

not a thing

behind

it sings

and takes

words

with it


Sunday 28 November 2021

#697 - a creek run

 




29.xi.21

697

2.333

a creek run

 

moss moist

tiptoe round

 

every drop a wheel

of kingdom

turning rainbows to

a lichen lap

 

I kneel

I bend

to the breathless stream

 

for fungus

come closer

 

in the green, be more

 

cast up eye

trill

 

trees grow taller with the dark

on a day like this

if I say ‘dance’

ask who’s in the mirror

 

it’s more like a breeze

fell into gully

 

some were born in the rain

and some came to

 

this imperfecting flow

 

these many happy returns of the sky

 

everyone sheltering

all at a stretch

 

take hope

and sing the birds

other colours

 

now comes the big bright yellow fellow

and shows us all the flowers