She is naked and alone,
Everything hurts.
Tears slide down her gooseflesh *******,
They are cold and unkind.
Some catch at the corner of her mouth,
And the salt stings.
Baptised in pain and misery,
She raises her face to the unforgiving light
And closes her eyes, they ache and burn.
The tears run, then, to a different place
But they are still cold, they are still unkind,
Everything hurts.
She is naked and alone.

There is a cumulus cloud
which ascended
thousands of miles high
into
the blue blue skies
the cloud
rolled in
riding the trade winds
following
the half cut moon.

As this cloud traveled
along those winds
covering
the stars and blackened sky
every human consciousness
on
the planet
was combined
in
the voices and desires
of
all mankind.

At first
the clamor was too much to bear
I
was frozen there
my head in the clouds
but
as the winds
blew
that cloud
across everywhere
we
became
one
silent mind
and
the celestial songs began to sing
and
in our hearts
peace
was finally found to begin.

4am, awake again.
It is hard to hold onto the self
When engulfed in pain,
The essence of me,
Overwhelmed by analgesics.
Fight, fight, fight,
Everything will be alright.
Time enough to shed this murky shroud,
For now, coffee, codeine, carry on.

When language is lost, we need never speak.
Listen, and you will know everything.
I begin so softly, this is my prelude,
Your patient silence a reply.
Building notes on notes, I tell you how I feel.
I need not fear; there can be no misinterpretation,
The song speaks for me, clearly, simply,
I am here, you are there, and we are together.
Keys are pressed, strings are plucked, the chorus reached,
Crescendo soaring, tears pour down my face,
But I am not sad.
All boundaries are conventions,
We will transcend them, together.
I imagine a door,
It will open, for us,
If not here, then in another world,
A dream, a page, a song,
A story we will build.
Listen, you will know me
In every way, I am giving you my whole heart,
It is here, in the magic of the music,
Each note a single drop in the ocean,
Yet, what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?

I miss you
At silent, lonely midnight and at angry 3am.
In the timid mumbling of morning,
And the quiet gathering time
As I prepare to leave the house,
Resigned and calm and ready,
I miss you.

I miss you
In the crowded cocoon of the bus commute to work
And the coffee coated sip of 8am.
In the manic chatter of my mid morning break,
And the solitary supping of sustenance, at noon.
When I shrug on my coat, and exit in a daze,
I miss you.

I miss you
Walking home, past smiling hordes.
My house tries to welcome me
Through gritted teeth, I turn the key.
I miss you as I eat again, prepare for bed,
Type this poem, gulp away the lump that's in my throat
And return to stanza one.
I miss you.