Sharing a lost freedom
you gave us a fleeting,
distanced touch of colleagues,
friends, your girls

free laughs flowed in honour
til you passed us for the last time
in this grey world
and we choked a little

but even then, the technicolour
of next time rained,
irrepressible as red laughter
and leopard print

I give you this knackered heart
and hold yours in return
as we bumble from supermarket to sofa
and all sweet pointlessnesses in between

the odd flashes of glamour
we submit to, bemused
fuel the common love
of early nights, remote controls
and daft chatter

A spell of bone cold
to remind us that a magic
rules all
our knotted muscles contract
as the frigid air kisses
with wool and other matters
we try to defend

Sun sets behind, same as always
stretching my still unshapen shadow forward

My foot on the pedal presses,
maybe not as hard as before,
but always

The comic line perspective
forced to fit the frame, constricts
but at the same time comforts

Synapses that once crackled, fizzle
and with a little sadness,
still smile

I think about you often,
elusive, the memory is,
a shape-shifter,
when I think it familiar,
amorphous it changes

Other times unbidden
it will rest fully formed on a quiet lap,
a gentle weight of warmth,
until distraction calls
and you’re gone

Remember the need for navigation?
when you rolled your silly guts
outside of this?

I shoulda guessed there’d be
a sorta dumbening
that comes with dark times
sitting in a sofa groove
that coulda been made by Adam

but then whadda I know?
I voted for this,
huh

There was snow and ice before,
a window, pause
of sharp prettiness passing
that petty poets could read a lot into

or just realise that once it’s gone
the garden looks like ****