Really wanna hold you, tell you sorry
Wanna split the rose in you
and the bulrushes rustle  
till the morning dawns over the hillside.

Just as the one in your arms tells you
the right words at the right time
dint make mine
the wrong ones.

How little they knew, the ploughers
sweat on the brow of grown things
approaching them with chilled drinks on a tray.

Beneath those billowing skirts
what she carried
and with each dragging step, she felt
the deliberate digging into mud
a soft release
of eager seed to ground.

And how they dug into the earth.

Nightfall beckons home a new flock
each week
so no-one ever suspects
the assortment of characters in the dark
Nine white birds
on a line
the only eyes to it all.

You showed us the depth of love in a sordid world
your aid brought us to ship's end, diving into bliss
the creaking of your weight as we shifted quietly
and found magic when we met
there.

You taught me love, tights jeans and all
Don't be scarce.

An earthy kindness in the heat
my tongue revels
your ginger distance, a purple thing
softly calling.

Never in all my battles (a violin plays)
did I expect it
so much stretching
and it's my morning music cosseting that
screeching
silence
the screen lies all the time.

Time to get to meet yourself
it's no good adjourning the meet
in the mirror, a skew look behind
my pate
a smiling thing.

More specters come
when the song stops
just when I reload
I prefer your bullets.

It's by that sliver of light
which shivers and changes
that I know
you're there
in the room.

And I thought I recognized your face
in the sea of poems
but perhaps
I was wrong
'cos sometimes you liked it
dry.

Didn't you?

I'll keep looking for that sliver
in the door's side
knowing strangely
you will return.

I sneeze
again
in the wake of the dust
you've unsettled.

I dreamt it.

Summon the words from the breast of courage
don't over feed the cat, he needs a little dust
the more he's fed, the more he wants
This is how the clever fools call it.

Curtail it, slice it, wound it, pack it away
climb the highest oak tree to see over the woods
you thought wrong, appetite is merely flattened not reduced
I end up conditioned, more wary round your electrified halo.