i.

sunlight,
blue jewel
of the sky,
dancing ring,

solitary keeper,

melting rose,
cool in its summer
bloom.

ii.

how pretty the
crystal green
leaves, the
knotted wood
angular, waving.

iii.

summer stole our
hearts, the sea my
love, in its ebony
waves, blue straws
and indigo light.

iv.

sea, rose of green
summer, blue of
languid lake, dance
of soul, desert ache.

v.

you conjure a spell
of your heart
wanting me
to want you.

i want you,
i say it
again and
again.

everything of
me was choir-song

every bolt of
air,
every summer
moon,
every drop of
cooling rain,

in spring i
melted like
a hedgerow,
in gold and
sky-bronze,

in summer i
gathered the sky
to my branches
green with shadows
of longing,

in autumn i trembled
downwards like a
girl unwinding her
hair,

and in winter i froze
on the doorstep
all black branch
and cold
rigging on
a barren ship,

everything of me
was choir-song and
i had the most
beautiful
purple throat,

i was a soft
melody of love
on a strange
moody day.

You can always tell winter from fall
In how soon
We correct the clocks.

The dashboard is wrong
For weeks
We decided we are comfortable
And so
And yet
We don't look.

Our ovens are forgotten
Maybe it's helpful, to do the dishes
And be a false hour further
From winter's silent failures

You lost
So much more than an hour.

Feet fall under
Never in front
That right knee straight
No music
Steps softly snapping
Toes stretching to grab more sock.

I pace to be reminded
Sore hips tingle for
That aging runner's personal stretch
No medal of honour
A purple heart.

Work day morning shower
Then sweat at work an hour
Daddy why is he running?
Faster than walking.
Didn't care to explain
The airy chant of
Restlessness and frustration
Exhaled with the most
Commanding push

Posture long since ruined
So tuck that tailbone
Head back
Your neck had better hurt
This is you at your best
A familial love
And the same lack of visits.

There was an old world
that turned on it's head,

and turned out it’s pockets
and shook out the dead,

and shook off the living
and all of their stuff

til' all there was left
it considered enough,

and all there was left
was a world upsidedown,

and wind and whatever
had roots in the ground,

and fish with a warning
to stay where they be,

down under the waves
of the shookabout sea.

i.

without words,
boy, caught up in the dark,
brown-eyed boy,

as night drifts,
dark in her clouds.

ii.

a tumbling
star,
leaden feet
sink to earth,

drowning stream...
poured from a water jug
a dark, crackling sky.  

iii.

night's thick opiates
glaze,

unmissable sky
sinks anchor-like.

iv.

slumber-heavy,
dreams carried to the stars,
lost time
stretching like a cat.

v.

boy, sleep sound tonight,
brown-eyed boy,

as night drifts
dark in her clouds.