Flywheels enamel
with heartblood,
aortal ticks hesitate

before the dull bang
of a fallen fist,
the fat knuckle

of the next hit.
Tick tick the
small ones,

the eaters of dust,
stone-eyed they
fall apart like lost time,

the weights that
regulate all
are unbalanced.

Time
like a river flows it's way
end-wards.
Months
hang suspended like clothes
on a line.
Days
close tight together hazily
blending.
Smiles
without happenings lag far
behind.

Holed
with an emptiness moments
revert.
Memory
without laughter cools to a
gel.
Hollowness
will flow to a standstill from
thirst.
Waiting
and missing are words I know
well.

Finding some way to lighten is
what I must do.
Unaccountably heavy is time
without you.

Your eyes, the sun, the way they glint and glare  
I cannot help but see through crystal glass
The way you tempt my mind unto despair,
Longing for something, far now come and passed.
Now I the Icarus, I thought I'd thrive,
Again your mind hath lured me to your soul
But turn away, and I, thine heart deny
A burning love within, I must console.
You do not know the way you pierced my heart,
Mistook my dismal speech for friendly thought-
Whilst I must not my views to you impart,
I see that all my trials lead to naught.
Regardless, in my arms I wish you home
Still welcome here wherever you may roam.

I wrote this long ago for a friend with cancer - a small malignancy the size of a pearl in her lung. The hateful thing metastasised to her pancreas after two years in the shadows - she lost her battle last week. She was 73. She was firm friends with my mother my entire life, and her own children Isobel and Craig are like my own flesh and blood. I was unable to attend the funeral due to ill health, but she requested this poem be read out at her funeral - I'm sharing it here as a tribute to her, and I've changed names to preserve her privacy and dignity. **


This kingdom's hewn of time and words
And glances flashing over
Shadows, shapes and silhouettes
And pearls of smoke and ochre.

Rude invaders! Generals!
Who dares encroach our borders?
"Naught but pearls my princess, so
We strike! At dawn! No quarter!".

Set shoulders low and feet aplant
And curl your fingers slowly.
Your enemy is swift and lean,
Ten thousand times below you.

No mercy from a princess who
Instilled in fresh disciples
Wisdom, courage, whimsy, love and
When it's called for... rifles.

Gather muskets! Catapults!
Oh marshalls! Summon nurses!
The game's afoot and outcomes?
Well, who dwells on whom we versus?

For masses swell behind you and your
Gleaming armour guides us.
Swords aflame! We saw! We came!
Wakes of pearls behind us!

Ten years hence, one hundred, more
Louises, Davids, Andrews,
Will sing with you your victory,
Sandy Alexandrou.