You stroke my hair
Whilst I smooth the flesh
                          That without muscle hangs

Outside the clouds
Turn into a landscape
Obscured by haze
                                    In that blissful second
I forget the fading time allotted to us
And the reality
Of both our consequences

Each balloon in my room
Carries a captive thought
The type which remain
                                         Dominant
                                         Predatory
Continually paced
Head below shoulder
Eased only by a need
To sway
                    On un-retracted claw

Every anxiety a cord
Of attachment
Led to an open window
                                   One by one
Released to navigate the planet

Lest they stay
To circle the world
                    Inside my head

I ask
And you say
                                                     “I’m not sure”
Like the moment
Before it snows

Or nights spent
Searching for Venus
Without clarity
Through naked eyes

You knew she lay secluded
In a room unused
But still said
                                                     "I’m not sure”

There she wore a pendant
Engraved   “keep out” in braille
I didn’t feel it
We never touched
Venus dims
And you won’t speak
The words from within
I ask
And you say
                                                    “Are you sure”

Whilst gravity
However weak
Defines

This experience remains
Bound by density
                                   By dimension

Unless everything is forgotten
Even the act of remembering
                                           To forget

Holds one
Shrouded from the ether
By five dermal layers

Each to be permeated daily
In silence between Monday
                                     And Friday

Leaving Saturdays naked

Without thought of Sunday
Or dissolving into the space
                                     That surrounds us all

No matter
                      Upon which surface I tread
Moss sand soil
Sediments of years
                                  Long past
Become exposed
                                  In my steps
Layers of guilt
A backpack
That cannot be lightened
                                  Or past to another
When load or gradient surpass my will

No matter
                     Upon which surface I tread
The footprints left
                                  Sink deeper
Than scales would suggest
One day soon
                     With love and acceptance

A path upon tissue paper
                                   Will leave no trace

Identity has
No attachment
Where from
It was once held down
                                                     As a constant
To cover the years

Identity is suggestive

Fluid
In the moment of our own perception
Adaptable
In the moment of being perceived

Take an ice cube
Place it between your palms
                                                   As to incubate
Identity dissolves to
Slip through your fingers

Pull back the blindfold
                             Let the sunlight
Bask in the shade from the tree

Un-bridle shoes  
                             You’ve never worn

They’ve no memory of
Steps you’ve taken

Use laces that have never been tied
                       Walk without conception
                       Observe without association
                       Evolve without dependence

Each time I think of you
It is as if

               I call down the moon
               To frame your silhouette
               Embraced by another

It is as if

               The four winds
               Shall burn us both
               With the jealously
               Born from my nature

It is as if

               Each composition of
               Scented dialogue
               Withheld from my eyes
               Became a letter
               Of indiscretion
                              Unleashed upon the world

Between dawn
                             And dusk
This roof space
Is an observatory
                             Of light

Slates fatigued
Squint in midsummer
Cowering
From wavelengths
                             That probe
Illuminating particles
Within shards
Slim and soft
                             Like 6B graphite
Dancing by day
Midst boxes
                             Bound by year
      
I clench a hand
Form a telescope
And peer through the smallest
                                         Aperture within
The translucent part of my body adapts                                  
                        ­                 To absorb all that reflects within

Love's
           An unbound number
There is no three and a half
                            Or division
                                  
Love is a pacifist
Surrendered upon us

Our divinity
All that is
                   Until
Tainted by human emotion

Love’s the endless wave
Without satellite to
                                    Push or pull
                    
It’s a wedding bouquet
Thrown to an empty room

It’s constant within
                                     A state of awareness

There was something
About your mascara
When it rained
                    When it smudged
I’m glad it wasn’t waterproof
                           Or childproof
Because
That’s how you made me feel

But
Before it ran
The liner in the corner of each eye angled
                                                          Easterly
Aligning with Horus and the pyramids

And now the prism
Within each iris within each eye
Within your photograph
Creates a
                  Mirage
                  That your still here

There was something
                   About your
                   Mascara

When you have no thought
                                  For tomorrow today
And yesterday fails to exist  
It’s like being breathless
When the only relative moment
                                                          Is now    
And you gasp
Grip life and hold it close
                                              Close enough
To accept that every nail
Driven deep into your body  
                                      By life
Becomes no more
Than a point of reference
Upon which to hang your clothes

When you’re in the moment
                                              Your presence
Fills a bandstand
                   A park
The promise made to yourself as a child
                               When I grow up……..

Hold yourself close to each minute
                                      Be breathless

There is a condition
Adjacent to fear
But beyond its boundary

A place so close
That you
May drown in the awareness
Of survival

A point in time
Where you
Await the Caiman to close
Their eyes

Direct and concise
Without mention
                  From father to daughter
To she who pounded his chest
To she who whispered don’t go
To she who wept across the county

Business like
                      Wills
Black and white
                      Bound in ribbons
                      That attach to your heart

With strings that bind in knots
With words that form at an hourly rate
With clauses that omit
                                                 I loved you x

When I see the golden barley
That mimics your hair
                                    Blowing free
Or sunlight etching into
My plate my cup my toast
                                             At 6am
My day is complete
I need nothing else
I need not contemplate
Dreams of darkness
                      Or how for you
Seven rooms
Shrank to encase the
Whole of the world
Within one
Now you fill
                       Every cup
                       Every saucer
                       Every slice
                       Every minute of my life

We could bathe
In physical truth
                                    Perhaps we do
Neat or distilled
Drip fed
              Like water
In it’s any forms
Without place on the periodic table

Truth can be softened
                          In our fragility
          Hardened
                          By others resilience

Worn by the face of a manikin
        At peace within the world

If that’s what you wish it to be

Dear Diary

                     It’s not my fault

It’s easy to render
Myself a victim
Driven by consequence
                                    
Accountability
Sheds daily
                    Like skin
It silently falls

Perhaps I shall erase
My cuttings of
                    Foregone conclusions

They surround a
Diary full of days
Each encircled
                    By the failure of others

Your voice softened
Unforced by storm
                               Became hypnotic
Lullabies
Mermaids
Seduced me toward
                               Echoes distant

Whale song haunts
Like an album
A diary
With each page the same

We’re parallel
You’re the most
Of my being
Touched by the stars
                              Pulled by the moon

The salt in our tears
Surely connects us
                              To that part
Still water bound
By the memory it holds

I know why the cats eyes sobbed
The contentment contained in a purr
And what to do with a fallen star

What it is to be captivated
Why icebergs drown and
Why we should walk
                                      In our own shoes

That mortality is a phase
              Experience my greatest teacher

That want and require are not the same
                                         But both inspire

My worst enemy appears in
A mirror and the time it takes
for a sparrow to exhale

How nothingness conceals all
        And the clarity of silence

That life unfolds before us
Exactly as we choose it to be
Based on the past experience
Of how we expect to be
                                           Unless it doesn’t
              Because you can’t live it that way