ugly men on the way back from work

watch the summer dress and the small body within

walk with the breeze down the steps,

down from the station while

the trains pull away,

their carriages carrying the sea and the low-tide estuaries'

breath within them

and they watch the dress and the body and the breeze

cross the road into

the sun swallowed supermarkets

and the ugly men walk home

beneath retired balconies

and the slow

beginnings of evenings.

She wore the night as a small black dress
tight across her olive skin,
and when she twirled,
the stars swayed as though
they were sequins stitched
on the fabric hugging her waste.
She drifted down the street
as though it were a river,
and she was walking on water.
Her eyes blinked and shut
those glistening sable curtains
that made my knees grow weak.
The sun will only rise with her permission,
that mistress of the night and lover of the moon,
who blew kisses my way
carried on starlight born in streetlights.

Sophia sorts through
her parents' room;
they're out for the day,
some Polish old comrades

meeting of her father's,
old war pals. She opens up
the old wardrobe, sorts
through things, takes out

her mother's old dresses
and some new ones, puts
them on the bed. She likes
a red one, old but well kept.

She ponders, she decides
to try it on. She undresses
from her own jeans and top
and puts on the old red dress

and looks at herself in the
wardrobe mirror. Her mother
must have been her size back
then, it fits like it was made

for her. She does a twirl, looks
back at her ***, her thighs,
turns to the front and stares
at her *******. She doesn't

remember her mother wearing
the dress, not a dress she recalls
her mother wearing at all. She
looks down, it comes just below

the knees, although she's taller
than her mother, so it would
come lower on her mother.
She embraces herself as if

Benedict were there behind her
putting his arms around her
and breathing on her neck.
She stares at herself in the mirror;

stares at her full length. She
smells the material. It smells
of stale perfume, but not horrible
or clammy. She walks around

the room in it; looks at herself
in the mirror across the room.
She'd ask her mother if she could
borrow it, but then she'd have to

say she'd been in her mother's wardrobe
and that would cause hell with her
father and she didn't want that. She
take off the dress and stands there

in her bra and *******, and puts the
dress back on the hanger, and puts
it back with the other dresses where
she found it the wardrobe, in the right

place, and pushes the clothes back as
far as shes can recall in the order they
were, and closes the wardrobe door.
She dresses back in her jeans and top.

She pauses by the bed. The crucifix over
the bed. The Crucified staring down
pityingly. She touches the bed with her
fingers. She'd like to bring Benedict here;

make love here. But not after last time
in her room and her parents came back
after and that was too close. And some
neighbour had split on her and said

they'd seen young man and her come
here while her parents were out and her
father gave her the third degree over it.
Her father said she can only bring the

boy when they were home. Couldn't bring
Benedict back for *** while they were
downstairs sitting watching TV and
drinking their wine and such, and not

in her parent's bed, not beneath the
Crucified, except in her blonde haired head.

Lizbeth dressed
in her favourite
short dress

knowing her mother
would disapprove
and would lead

to her mother's
usual moans about
looking like a ****

like one of those dancers
on that TV pop music
programme

and what would
the neighbours think?
Lizbeth stared at herself

in the full length mirror
looking at red hair
her freckled skin

which she loathed
and how the dress
was getting tight

about her
how it showed her
shapely figure

which she did like
and her mother didn't
and thought of Benedict

at home in
his village cottage
with his parents

and siblings
and she hoping
to cycle out

to see him
and maybe
if she was lucky

get him
to get down to it
-she had tried

many times before
but with no success
- even in the small church

where no one
ever visited
he wouldn’t get down

to having ***
saying it wasn't
the place

and then another time
in his bedroom
where he took her

to show her
his animals bones
and bird eggs

and fossils
in broken pieces
of chalk

and it was there
behind them
his double bed

already for them
but no
she was till a ******

and even here
in her own bedroom
she brought him once

and still he wouldn't
have it
even though she'd

almost stripped off
her clothes for him
O how boring

he could be
and she gagging for it
so much so

that she was tempted
to go it alone-
as seen in

the *** book
a girl at school
had lent her-

but no
she wanted Benedict
no other boy

just him
and down stairs
she heard her mother

singing along
to the radio
some classical

music stuff
her mother's voice
croaking above

the music
like an unhappy frog
she lifted

the short dress
by the hem
to see how short

it could get
before her mother
would take it away

from her
and give it
to another

she raised it so
she could just
about see her

white underwear
and smiled
and said

to herself
there
yes there.

The sound of poetry slipping from my tongue
sings the same tune as her dress
slipping from her shoulders,
as the midnight bell rings a sweet goodnight,
although sleep is far from both our minds.

In her radiance
I
Lost my vibrant
And
Breathtaking the harbor nights
With
Sleek silky red dress
And
Quibble over the sacrilege
Of
Pin sized consciousness
Then
Sealed with a kiss
To
Perpetuate the captivation
Without
Feeling poignant
So
Once fold the old fiasco
Now
All the harbor air
Smells
So right.

I don't know
Who saw who first
It don't matter
much to me

I don't know
What song was playing
When I first laid eyes on you
But, I just knew I had to know you
Before the night was through

I remember very closely
What you wore
When we first met
The blouse, the jeans
The perfume
That's one thing I won't forget




Little things escape me
Details...not for me
I look at the big picture
And that's just what I see


Your favorite drink....don't ask me
Your favorite movie...not a chance
The details all escape me
They just leave me in a trance


I remember very closely
What you wore
When we first met
The blouse, the jeans
The perfume
That's one thing I won't forget

I know nothing of the small stuff
The details are out of mind
To me, they're not important
That's why I leave them all behind

She ran

She ran towards the uncompleted music room

She stood at the corner with her red dress

The corner where the tall windows were

The corner where the piano was

With a touch, she played her heart

Her heart of cries

The music room was complete with her tears