Cool and refreshing. It's the American noun
For fizzy drinks, you know. A foamy relish stirs,
The bubbles rise like verbs, swirl about, and
Hiss at the surface. The faintest flavour of
An adjective, something sweet and forgiving.

Lightning strikes in the distance. The winds
Howl, moons echo in faraway orbits, the wolves
Throw up their heads and scream into the night.

A gust of moonlight rushes through your focus,
Cursing your vision with faint outlines, phantoms
Of your window-sill. You think you hear the sea
But you have no blue. None but your curtains,
Flapping in the gale, raising like a crescendo

Up to the coldest stars, spread out across the sky,
Brush-stroke on canvas. Violins, the taste of coffee.
The wolves howl. Moons echo with your paintwork.

Open road curbs against the valley, short,
As I move to greet it. My mind wails
Into the night breeze, contentedly stirring
Over my fingers, my thoughts, numb.
Silence throughout, still beyond, but ever
The vicious cyclone whirls, stirs.

Long hours of sleeping. A glass of whiskey
And a cube of ice, cracked and harsh and
Splashed out on the road, the same colour
As lamplight. Mind, cold, ice, spirit
In my glass, rushing through quiet lanes,
Rush'd through my eyes, my veins;

Starlight swirls and washes up my shirt,
Wrought with chills. My chest wonders aloud
At the pace of my heartbeat, the short
Breaths, gasping, drinking air, soft and uniform
And empty. A sort of present nonexistence
Whirls about my skin, my mind, my tears.

We hit a wall. Our vaguely sour
And broken dialogue drives us mad,
Like we can't quite finish a sentence.
Poles apart. Outside, the darkening clouds
Brood like the foul memory of
An insult, long forgiven, but
Not forgotten.

Our lines split and our words echo,
Writhing in agony, torn and bro-
Ken. Trying to form a question
On our tongues, rolling like hot oil,
Leaves raw burns in our minds. We lie
In quiet then, a rainless storm of
Unspoken fears.

Dust is that from which stars are made.
A paradigm of childbirth. Blood
Swirling in a hot centrifuge
Like a vortex of fabric, played
Delicately atop the palm of a
Darling wife, motherly creature,
Denied her union. Bled of that hot
Milk, strained like a force, though never

Pulled beyond, she sits atop her
Stool, draped in the clothier's mantle,
With the hands of a craftswoman. Her eyes
Bedazzle us, distant and purposeful.
Woven from dust, these gentle threads
Are tangled and wrapped unto themselves, formed
Into the fabric of a memory
And bled out in a lattice of starlight.

Dust is that from which stars are made.
The dust of a memory, ground
Under the craftswoman's pestle. Our lights
Are distinct, cut like a crystal
And hewn into the sterling weave
Of jewels, held out like a shroud
And left to dry, as that faint light
Dreams of swirling dust.

Ever-sung stories. Melodies, music
Becomes a lattice on which our
Light is recalled. A whispered melody
Turned lyric. Into the stars our
Memories echo, ringing through
Fields of starlight. Our resonance,
Committed to its odyssey, is sent off
With a kiss on its forehead.

Wisps adrift in the void count off,
One-by-one, and softly surrender.
The message of our memory,
Held upon a star, is lastly forgot
As the shroud dissipates and forms
A veil, adored and tragic and torn out
Across the sky. Gently woven anew,
Our memories refreshed like a drop of water.

Like a river of cold tears, that gentle Autumn rain
Streams down my window. Somewhere outside
A gale caresses the trees, whirls them around,
Carrying away their leaves, like broken fragments
Of a memory.

I can't sleep, because I don't want to. That late
Summer air fills my lungs, cooling me from the
Inside. My legs tingle from sitting a little awkward,
So I lie my head back, face the curtains, and wonder
At the rain.

I couldn't have known. Beyond my roof, a few feet
From my bed, a quiet breeze would rush along
And streak past my window, blow my curtains
Aside, carrying with it the faraway sensations
Of the world below.

Alone I sat in silence. I was not to feel the cold,
Wrapped up in my little duvet. I felt only the cool
Embrace of solemnity kiss my forehead, stir past,
And disperse among the bedsheets. I wanted to cry,
But they were good tears.

I will never forget. When I am alone, my curtains
Will brush against the window-pane, thin-paced,
And the tears will come again. Good tears, I think.
When I was little, I couldn't have known;
Those were the days.

It is very faint. The
Memory whirrs about
In my mind, like an
Old VHS tape. Cold

Static, drawing across
My faintest conceptions.
A grey recording of
A time past, old and

Gone. The bright screen
Under the dark sheets,
The cool August night.
That music. All of it

Faint, hewn in static,
Bleeding from decades
Of being replayed. Now
All I can do is struggle,

Struggle to remember.