Of course it all makes sense now
I knew I had seen you somewhere before.
At Little Round Top
Your blue tidal wave swept us off our feet
Came crashing down from a sea of pine trees
And we drowned in that ****** surf.

I managed only one round before I was hit
A wild shot and so unlucky, I see that now.
As we lay soaking up the last of the sun
I remember how you cursed me
For taking your life
And little did I think then
You would find me
One hundred and fifty years later
And steal my wife.

The cotton wool clouds
Glued at random
In a giant blue
Colouring book
Are real
And cause me to breathe
Deeply for the first
Time today.
The greenwood
With it's shadows
That question the rights
Of leaves to answer
And flowers, freshly
Painted this morning
By the supreme artist
Who begs us to, who
Dares us not to
Notice them
And the seed,
Airborne at last
Parachuting into
My hand
Are all real,
But I am not.

A flurry of birds
Greets the eerie silence;
****** canvas and a stiller you.
The heralding snow
Changes all my plans
For the road is lost
And we must make our way, gingerly
Down the old footpath.

So bring in the lambs
And shut up the shop
But not before we have bought the last loaf;
Wrestling with oversize coats
And from beneath floppy hats
We stumble on with sheepish grins,
And look, there's our neighbour.

Always too late for Christmas
But never for the children
This is the day they have waited for,
So just for once
The tax man can wait
For his ill gotten gains;
Let the snowball fight commence!

On the road that never slept
And never stopped
Trespassing through the ancient ways
The badger took his last breath.
And when the sun appeared
It was a thin cold gauze
Not nearly strong enough
To warm his back
Let alone
Stir a life's blood
As if it accepted
His death
Was inevitable.

Nature does it better
Tides ebb, effortless rhythm
Frothing on pebbles ****** clean.
And then there's the muddled heap of us,
Arms, legs strewn, disfigured,
And kisses to stop the questions,
We dare to call it love.
Leaves quiver, untouched,
Yet hidden by a single silent breath,
While we lie pinned underneath
Roughly reaching under clothes
For feelings, something outside me,
Inside you,
Trying to capture the other
Or help them escape,
And we dare to call it love.
Moonlight and stars flickering,
Teasing, half way to heaven,
Still I marvel that you came,
Wanted to be with me,
We dare to call it love,
And it is.

Remember our last ever pillow fight
On the bed
When yours burst
And we were left standing naked
In falling feathers.

Here I am again with my secrets
My lame excuses,
My unfinished prayers
My bits of the day
That fly uncontrollably
Around the room.
Say hush one more time
Soothe a stranger's
Troubled brow
These aching limbs.
Kiss my eyelids tight shut
So that I may never peek again
And wake me
When you have done.

My battery is low
I'm a flickering light
A faint glow
Staying on for you.

In an age of twilight
You lie outstretched before me
The line of your shore,
Your naked beauty
Clothed at last
In my reverence.

For I am powerless to move
Away from the rapids
On to the quiet platform
Where my soul
Longs to rest,
Until your tears
Too long bitter
And salty
Become a stream,
A river
An ocean of love.

Now I have stopped walking
All movement is carried on the wind.
Was I so consumed?
Could I not see my tattered clothes
Have felt my blistered feet?
Why did it take so long to find this place
To reclaim my space?
Where I stand is all I know
I am here
I have arrived.

I usually spend my time
At the table close to the drink,
With most of the night
To sit and think
Of it all working like a charm,
When we throw the great doors open
And you arrive on my arm
Then the music starts up
I have the first dance
You so close to me
Your hand in mine
Sends shivers down my spine,
Then the firelight in your eyes
Leads me further into a trance.

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.

One raindrop for every broken heart he thought.
He waited for two hours
Half in the shop, getting wetter by the minute.
He meant to go several times
Set off down the street purposively
As if he had just finished a book
But forgetting how it ended
Had to go back to the light of the doorway.
He looked at his watch again
A raindrop blurred the figures
And wiped away time.
The street darkened, emptied and quietened.
The shopkeeper turned everything off, locked up
And said goodnight.
A moth that had been trying to get in
Lost his reason for living.
It wandered off and was splashed by the first car
That came along and drowned.
He watched it float down a drain.

'You look like a drowned moth yourself' she said
'Come on before you catch your death.'
He followed her through the city
To a small flat above a shop.
'Get those clothes off, I'll put the kettle on,
You'll find some more in the bedroom', she said.
He was half dressed when she appeared,
'I'll put these on the radiators, come by the fire
And have some tea. Do you take sugar?'
They stared into the gas fire and he thought
He saw a flame.
'Don't misunderstand me', he said
'You really are very kind, I am grateful
But I don't know why you are going to all
This trouble, you see I was waiting for my wife.'
'Thats all right,' she said, 'Don't worry, I was looking
For my husband, drink your tea before it goes cold.'

Our two suitcases
Together again
Under the bed,
Mine, looking brand new
In its original cellophane
With a 'Pasures New' label
Was still a good buy.
Yours is pretty battered now,
It has seen better days
And will again.

A shooting star is better,
Love is like that
Or a rainbow,
Love could become like that.
Instead what passes for love
Makes us take cover,
A meteorite
Hurtling through time zones
Entering restricted air space
Crossing boundaries unrecognised
Crashing into lives, interrupting nights,
And by the time we have picked it up
On the radar
It is too late to mobilize defences
Too late to recover.
No wonder we can't trust each other.