Here in the dusk while the light falls away,
comes the night in it's wake
I am wrapped in the nothings of a wintery gale

At my neck and my ear rush it's wintery song
I am coldly embraced, although never for long

Here where the roads harbour hardly a soul
Where the bramble and the briars are frozen and blown
Here where the rains move in curtains of silk-
curtains of light, beating and beating at the edges of night

Here where the pines in their thrashing and throes
In their fits and their starts and their sea-sounding odes..
..they are after my heart, they are leaning and thrown
beneath arctic white stars

From the eleventh floor
the world looks small
and possible

The cars
     black and white
     parked perpendicular
          to the curb
     parallel
          to each other
are keys
     ebony and ivory
    
I reach out
through the window
and play the street like a piano

Shrewd enough to pick a purse
To feed a mouth sheltered under a rain of curse.

Empty bottles and opponent as partners
The fruit of a faint love
Now mine to pick.

Sleep and wake to the sour taste of poverty
Cure in the heart of men that walk the street

Too good to smile at the tartered shirt
Too quick to point our direction

Too heavy a baggage to carry
Too light the burden I offload

Ran back to my sheltered nest
Broken bottles and a red eyed woman
From whence I came
To this world of pain

Opponents as partners
The tattered shelter nature spared us

A smile on the little ones
My motivation to attract a pointing finger

My tatttered shelter - Opponents as partners.

My street was full of aunties
and full of uncles too.
They weren't the same as family,
but grown-ups who we knew
- parents of my mates,
friends of mum and dad,
people I could trust to share
what it was they had.
- winter parties, summer trips
and massive paddling pools,
loads of music, lots of love
and laughter while we grew.
- common homes and gardens,
a street that was open plan,
family in every neighbour,
one big,
street-long
clan.

If you should see me again,
What should I do?
If we should talk again,
What would we say?
If I were to touch you again,
What would you do?
I'd I were to hold you again,
What would you do?
If I should see you again,
What would you do?

unmasked
big eyes
of glass windows

staring
at a sea
of emptiness

Vastness belongs to the oceans
emptiness, the sky
chill, the bones
hunger, the stomach

and the bodies
stretched out or bent
face up or face down
belong to the streets

Empty suites
and a sea of tents
on the rainy streets.

I looked out at the street,
      hoping for footsteps

coming up the path..

But all I heard was
            therapy sessions..