1
The surging water threw strange shapes,
Waiting crows with stabbing beaks
In the sky and in the drowned souls,
Festering in the swell.
The huge irrepressible waves
Spread wings flattening houses with a single downward swipe.
It was a sudden death,
They died screaming-avidly watched by millions nestling before TV sets
Unmoved if sympathetic.
They had watched enough CGI
Not to be bothered by such drama.


2.
The girl quietly combed her hair,
Bitter black in the lamplight,
Watching the snarling fox shoot from its lair
Slathering with fright.
As she lifted her arm again
The salt spray struck her, flattening her face
The wave soothed where her smile had been
Her limbs acquiring a greater grace.

It ****** in cars and houses, gulping down
The unresistant landscape with unforgiving speed,
Turning the living green into regurgitated brown
Digesting  the landscape with ******* greed
It drew her little body back into the equalising sea
Just another bit of debris.

She couldn’t believe she could breathe underwater for 43,829 minutes. Especially with all the constipated looks of sympathy.

Poor girl stuck in a box, they thought as they tapped the glass.

Some days she would float, barely moving, unresistant to the small currents that swayed her whichever way. Others she nestled away, trying to find something the temperature of blood to bury her face into.

But most days she acted normal. When they watched, she swam.

It wasn’t until she was alone that she removed the ceramic vase from where it sat and wedged it into her armpit, her arm wrapped around its base.

Ah, yes. The vase that once held flowers with promises of decay. She rocked it and rubbed her face against its glossy exterior. She ate fettuccini alfredo with it. She watched “Gone with the Wind” and “It’s a “Wonderful Life” with it. She sang Beatles classics to it.

But on the 43,829th minute, the vase slipped from her cold and slimy palms, shattering on the hardwood floor like an exhausted piece of coral.

She retrieved the broom, swept and took a seat next to the broken pile.

When she looked at her naked feet, she realized she hadn’t groomed them in a month. And with that, she hand-peeled her long and yellowed toe nails, flicked them into a dust pan full of ashes, looked up at the water stain on the ceiling and said, “here’s looking at you, kid.”

Threading this needle through
Each element incomplete
Tied together with the roughest sinews
Slowly leaving the whole for me

Slowly life becomes whole for me

Blowing in the morning breeze
Like each blade between the weeds
Delicate reeds, unresistant
Pulled so consistently, but still unbroken

Before I know it
I'm draining the filth from the basin
Within my bones
Flowing freely through my soul
And at last away from my core

A neon glow around the only
Temporary
Sun I have

Necessity can be persuasive
In bringing out the best I have

A short walk away
Waves barely breaking
Rocks and sand might not make
For the prettiest scene up close
But from my post here
They mostly look right

Entrapped by the dying light
Enthralled as the last rays fade
As the night slowly takes
The sky away from the blazing heat
The hues fade
Blink once and nothing changes

Close your eyes and it will change

Companionship in solitude
Finding yourself alone, even as
The one you found a home with
Sits mere feet away
That's only how it seems
Longing for it to stay this way

Life and brevity
A match made once
Strike it up
And go up in smoke
The flames may warm
But warmth in cold
That's something real
If you can manage

it's morning, and your arm cradles my head
gently, after such a long and torrid night

i roll over to watch you sleep

your eyes half-lidded, unfocused,
unmoving, unconscious

tenderly, i move your arm;
you do not stir.
slowly, i raise up on one arm
the better to see you my dear
delicately stroke your breast,
your ******, proud, *****, unaware

trace down with my fingertips
your firm abs, now rippling with
your steady, slow breathing
and lower, to your loose
and flaccid thighs which
flashed their strength on
the dance floor last night,
now so unresistant to my touch

your calves, (my breath catches)
what i noticed first
about you, smooth yet well-turned
and solid, what made me notice
and want you

the last drink i bought you
hit you hard
and still works your mind
as i speak softly in your ear
and watch your eyes respond
to what i say to you for later

Shall I take you now?

All in good time, my dear
All in good time.