we have
all tried to
"drown our
problems",
right?

the problem
with trying to
"drown our
problems"?

our problems
are better
swimmers than
we care
to admit.

they always
float back
to the
surface.

Next to the white painted fence
Underneath the old apple tree
My love of many years
Has promised to wait for me

Don’t be late was her message
Get here as fast as you can
A million leaves blew from the trees
When through the streets I ran and I ran

I got there and saw her smiling
Our arms embraced the day
But the problem with beautiful dreaming
Is that reality gets in the way

Then I remembered the daylight
And the birds were singing then
Please god do the impossible
And make this my dream again

I LIKE TO SAY YOUR NAME

I like to say
your name

when you're
not here

turn you
into sound

conjure you out of
thin air

so that you appear
before me

dressed in sound
only

memory sketching in
the rest of you

as if sound
was just an outline

and love
colours you in

adding the voice last
so I can hear you say.

"Hello you..!"
and there you are

as present
as present

can be.

I like to say
your name

when you're
not there.

In democracy we breathe in
life-saving oxygen
in dictatorship
in carbon dioxide's poison