you taught me a lot
and lit a fire in the snow
under the dovecote
a rook comes and goes
from a clear sky
and you sent me a photo
of a white candlestick
I keep on my wall
it reminds me often
of home
Tag: fire
wind through grass
she sat there like an old lioness
presiding over her wounds
and when she told of the children she’d abandoned
some fifty years before
who’d turned out alright
I saw tears well up behind her eyes
take away that prop I thought
and the whole citadel comes down
the whole citadel
that I am reminded
houses the soul
then I remembered my own mother
her own props and evasions
and a sudden gust rippled my conscience
like wind through grass
that night I dreamt of a white horse
standing in a burnt-out barn
stranded and irrecoverable
Cage birds
I tried to explain and tried to explain
but ever the same words came:
Like a white bird ascending from the fire,
so love moves beyond desire.
But she laughed at me time and again,
and so I tried a new refrain:
Like a white bird flying in flames,
so desire returns again.
A scornful look, an icy stare, no laughter,
an empty chair.
Two cage birds on a table.
