like someone
throwing the curtains open
on a glorious summer day
it has always been this way
[first posted December 2014]
Tag: love
letter to none
I never wrote to you –
perhaps I should
love ties rope round
and then it pulls
leaves us stretching
like a kid under a tree
for one bright apple
nobody sees
I don’t like apples –
never did
don’t eat fruit much
and won’t until
sweet berries lean
towards my door
and that will happen
to me no more
[first posted 22 November 2014]
crumbs 2
when the pheasant hit the window
we were eating cake
lemon crumbs on our lips
I could have kissed you
but didn’t
[first posted 23 May 2015]
stocks and bonds
the time we spent together
is permanent
not to fade
for I wear you like a watermark
and sorrow
love’s stock in trade
a flutter of wings
bridge between two islands
a place of meeting
and of tryst
touching
and desiring
and doing without
things are not the same
now
I garden
read
never looking up
even at
a flutter of wings
the coat
he disliked the coat he had been given
but wore it because he had no other
it had been made with love
and given with love
but only when it was worn through
did he learn to love it himself
the jar
I found an old jar in her kitchen
that for long had remained unused
it was like one I remembered from childhood
that I used to cling on to
the trees in my mother’s garden were many and beautiful
though she lived in a small apartment
by the sea
of the silent guest at her table
she would talk to her family
yes the trees in my mother’s garden were beautiful
but the jar
I threw into the sea
of the silent guest at her table
the sea has no memory
total recall
in the electric sympathy of your touch
I found my wilderness
and heaven both
but heaven is not measured out in dust
and dust was all I reached for
when I woke
you had a birthmark
we all have birthmarks
that much I can recall
here on this barstool
this barren outcrop
I recall the electric sympathy of your touch
nocturne
strands interwoven at twilight
amber at eve in a braid
we used to tell stories at bedtime
impossible stories we made
such a strange dance we were dancing
a dance we were taught by the sea
to whom do you wave on the shoreline
to whom do you wave if not me
the price of light bulbs
you sit at your table writing
while I sit at mine
I’d like to have coffee with you sometime
a glass or two of wine
discuss the price of light bulbs
or the intricacies of verse
there are subjects far worse
such as love
loss
domesticity
it would all be with the greatest civility
though I cannot remain serious
for too long
I knew a girl once made me laugh so much
I could have wept
but now she’s gone
and I am undone
so here’s to you
and whatever it is you write
so feverishly
uneasily
at your table
I am unable to stand the light
for much longer
at any price
[first posted Jan 10, 2016]
