You can have the
chairs, the bed
and the plates
But I’m keeping
the first dance,
the letters and -
those dates.

My skin
Once soft suppleness of youth
Now faded with callus.
Your mind
First to please, eager to prove
Grown jaded with malice.
Your hand
Soft softly stroking there
Hangs idle by your side.
And I shall not submit review  
Else would it gut my pride.

That winter was not cold enough for snow.
But the spring brought an unexpected storm
That carpeted early flowering bulbs;
A full winter’s worth made hearths ever warm.
Half life of ice around hearts cold and worn.
Of fingers interlaced
Of you and me
So intensely life was brought back to life.
We melted each other in those spring days.
Coolest adults found ablaze in delight
When dark spring usurped the cold light that year;
When it brought neighbours briefly together
Until snow became slush and unwanted -
That pretender whose timing was all wrong.
You said “you can’t blame the seasons, you know”.
But I won t  forget the thrill of spring snow.

..
Will you take a walk with me
Cast your gaze towards the sea
To let the day thaw for a time
And shrug off the moil
For here there is no quarrel
Just the serenity of sweet friendship sublime.

Your figure comes into focus with confidence.
The teacher passes pencils and I unglue.
I hadn’t know the terrain
But I had scaled you.
The bell pings.
Scratching pencils playing flames.
We can share tales uneasy to tell
As shadows dance in merry games.
The fourth question is a rest.
You introduce yourself in honey voice
but I’ve known you.
The bell pings again.

That time I stepped out
And felt a pull deep inside
As ancients drew my breath,
Asked not to neglect their presence
These ghosts of ages past
These ancestral spirits I knew before my birth
A past
Past
All memories
Muscle snd bone memories
Formed but not informed
A peculiar déjà vu.
Were these to be my late counsel?
Guiding me, cleansing me
As I traversed this new path?
I know them awhile
Assailing me for dismissing them then.
I shout to them as winter approaches.
That I wasn’t ready…
It took all my strength
To lift my arm
And wave goodbye.

Early mist
Hugging distant
Mountains.
Colder now.
Earlier
Soft spring-warm rain
Released my smile.
And now
Bleak autumn-cold rain
Weeps with me
Shares my pain
For the while.

Words can be misconstrued
When they aren’t said but viewed
Slight offerings that are not meant to slight  
You need to know I’m doing alright
But I hear you are lowly.
Don’t worry, we can take it slowly

Then shall I sleep
With dried tears on my cheek
Cradled in memories
And set confidences.

And I shall not weep
Or strain to eat
But shall find comfort
In dreams and alliances.

Contagion you have made some ill, some die
Some weak, some weaker still but I
Have found in you an unexpected Alibi.
Confined I find like mind apt to remind
Of a former time. Yet, your spiky crown
First afflicting then affecting did come down.

We kissed on the brink
of catastrophe
(so please don’t think
you have to look after me).
You were a holy man
With the spirit of a child
When I surrendered,
Barefaced, beguiled.
I didn’t have a choice.
Then you gave me words
But you took away my voice.

Dusk falls too early now
and cloaks the land in a
cool monochrome.
Autumn is retreating
giving way to
Nature’s most unkind shift.

.
I asked you if you loved me.
You declared you did of course.
You bathed me in your holy water
And then shut off the source.

You bathed me in your holy water
To the time that I was clean.
You took possession of my sin
Since then was I redeemed.

You saved me from the living
Stopped walking with the dead.
You bathed me in your holy water
Though you never shared your bed.

I asked you did you love me.
Your answer was, ‘of course’.
You bathed me in your holy water
And then shut off the source.