Hollow, leafless, rootless words
I get lost in them
Stumble over, cut myself in them.
My words are struck
By the lightning of your words.
They break off and come crashing
Down around me
Like sharp blows to the head.
They render me senseless
And I awake to the futility
Of trying to talk to you.
And then there are those words
Wrenched from silence
Stripped bare, forced free
From the soul
And these last few
Written on tears
Are becoming smudged
And will mean even less to you.

If true love doesn't
Come true there
I don't want to go.
If there are no football
Or hockey pitches
Or golf courses
Or open spaces
Where you can
Jump and run
Or mountains you can
Climb right to the top
Or if there is nowhere
To picnic
Then fall asleep in the sun,
And if there are no tennis courts
In heaven
I definitely don't want to go,
I may as well stay here
In my wheelchair.

Phone - check
Wallet - check
Dreams - yes
Live for ever - yes
Keys - check
Doors locked - check
Open to life - yes
Enough fuel - check
Know where I'm headed - yes
Time - check
To say our goodbyes - yes
Reality check

Across heavy
Raven swept skies
My browbeaten footsteps
Wind check my voyage
Land locks your eternal.

Now silken angels wings glide
Silently into amber mornings
I linger close to the shore
A fool lost in paradise
His beacon arched against the wind
And with drums of lovers beating
I am swept away on the tide.

Oh the joy of walking
With people keeping distance
And no joggers
Or cyclists
Brushing past
Our shoulders.

Dark already; I walk purposively
As if I am meeting you
And you are the new season,
While winter crouches in a doorway
Ready to hit me over the head
And steal the last of my summer.

I hardly knew the man
Had only spoken once
That he had spent many years
In the high country
Was plain to see.

No matter how far I walked
How high I climbed
He was always just ahead
Always just above me.

Within shouting distance
If I dared to call out
My cries longed to split the air
Instead of lying festering
Inside there.

When I faltered he strode on
When I stopped for a drink
And looked round
He was gone,
When I was overtaken
By exhaustion and wanted
To turn back
He found the mouth
Of your cave
Down my forbidden track.