the addled man sits
with his eyes wide as the photographer focuses
his lost scraps of tangible thought
he sews into a tapestry
of foolish creations
such charm may be found
in the playground of amused twisted creatures

but the grip the shadow he casts
crawls across the sun strewn lawn
like a creature of thirsts
tangled in its spoken vision is the
frame of the house of the mad
this shadow he bleakly thrusts at me
is rife with the rumours of tomorrow
but make for a thin meal in the aftermath of today

he sits with his glasses on
smudged with stained greasy fingerprints
like a visual history of his labours to seek this
understanding with a brutal sunny day
the scraps of his meager thoughts
swirl round and round the stew of his mind
the bitter things float
the sorrows pool to one side in toxic lakes
edged by the serene images of summer

the shadow his eyes chase finally reaches the church wall
and he bemoans a loud spectacle of a prayer
to the divinity of the photographers gentle hand
redeem me with your lens
stitch a new meaning to this tattered life
mere reflections of the world captured by her hand
through the lens
through the shadows he flings with
careless abandon wherever his raggedy preamble
of a life gathers him