This simplest trick
this majesty of dropping a degree
or two
and changing water into happiness,
nostalgia,
frozen fingers, cheeks like beacons
mittens heavy with sodden, laughing weight,
your daily haunts

transformed

and yes, the brown sludge days
will come, as always,
but for now the National Lampoon
sledge run past Tumnus
and the boxed delights
can have our hearts and minds

Geese fly by in a V
watched by laid back clouds
coloured flamboyant pink
by a sun that says
“See you tomorrow.”

Fat snow tickled us
and we forgot all that
for a string of heartbeats.

When I first heard the word
existential
I thought “Ooh that’s posh
perhaps I’ll pepper it in conversations,
Bosh! and figure out later
what it means.”

Twonk I was, I only slowly
saw the word existence hidden
in the cleverness of syllables
and then I thought I got it

But not until a maw
began to daily swallow
more than a thousand souls
of families and carers,
teachers, truckers, nurses,
loved
did I become aware

And I was scared.

Not just life being lost
but existence
the whole ****** swirl and fanfare
of little faffs and laughing drunken,
first chuckles, first kisses, first footsteps,
Sunday roasts, broken hearts and ecstasies

The nail-clutch of my anxiety
floored me
but underneath an ember burned
and a fire-question unfurled and grew:

How did we let this be?

It’s not a lie to bring them inside
and pretend spring

with central heating
drying sad eyes and itching skin
at least they offer a semblance
of a truth balefully missed

though the distant future
still promises such
current hands are hamfisted
in the art of wish fulfilment

I watched the woman wise beyond time
speak her poem to a nation not mine
voice carrying the weight of mountain ranges
the temperament of vast plains
the energy of impossible cities
and the grief and hope of individuals
with identities so closely bound
they’ve lost sight
from the long night she reached
and my foreign soul was lifted

The river knew you like us,
knows that the smile you gifted freely
with every inch of you
is gone from here

As it flows it keeps a memory like us
so when seas are reached
it will teach them of you
and why losing you
hurts so
and they will know you too

This guy and that guy
try to shake me down for some truths, y’know?

I says “Snow, fellas,
always follow the snow.”

and they looks at me askance
but obtuse
so I stole the tiniest chance and flew

Hoooie!

I’ll be payin’ for this one