Sophistry speaks with bitter pill
implies undignified surrender,
my starfish swims in muddy sea
lies on windswept shore to shrivel

we birthed these children honestly
quibble now at everyday ,
these games you play
leave radiant bubbles brittle .

Acquiescent sleep creeps near in gentle waves
to numb great hurt that stumbles from your lips ,
“If I’m all this “
the sum of your incise eclipse shadows noonday sun
& leaves me breathless.

The narrow land has opened to sea spit
encases lost horizon as I stand tall on your bluff,
hard words that gather in mind’s dust
cigarettes engorged in stagnant coffee cups .

Sacrificial nights are tearing at my guts
& crucifix held high in meditations denseness
the only hope I ply to form the formless future
where the graceful seabirds fly silver breasted
into calmer waters ,

hoping peace might come:

release the scum we’ve left
around our children’s heads,

& catch your grey green eyes again.

Night lies luminescent
moon ponds her orange orb
lane twists beyond moor’s brown band
body functions doggedly,

but there is no me .

Sweep dull dust of every day
check for splinters, zip tight years
that lie between our grasp of reality
measure the gap you offer me ,

I’m in retreat .

Sunlight strums her harshness
exposing marks on fading faces
beauty frail as lovers gasp
complete in dying moment,

as we pull apart.

You rocked me with your open heart
poured fresh balm to
staunch dark blood,
lifted me to blazing peak ,

I’m no longer free.

Revolving shadows flex my thoughts
your head dark on my pillow
comfort of your body’s glow
depth of hope you’ve brought to me ,

now I’m loathe to let you go .

I’ve burnt with brilliant candour
ricochet with truth’s desire
my wit has launched a thousand ships
yet you’ve made me doubt that God exists ,

but in my dreams we fly .

Other’s voices lose
touch, other’s touch
can never say as
much as the silence
that we hold.

Peripheral universe unfolds
the moon lies down
to eclipse’s blanket,
& the down of you sprouts,
half animal, half mystic.

We meet where & when we may,
though continents divide
& other’s lives jostle for attention,
no one squares
the circle of this.

I hold you in my mind
a crucible of fire, boy -man
holding back the torrents.
a union unsung we’ve backed
in corners long enough

searching full thronged streets
for some way out:
finding artifice in face & thigh
kisses in the night,
hot tongue of morning.

Other’s voices lose
touch other’s touch
can never say as
much as the silence
that we hold.

Now we are come to this:
spun of spirit raised by dreams
a hunger for the ultimate;
turn again retrieve the apple
from that long dead tree,,

when I was Eve.

You stand behind, like a painting
an unfinished canvas to lay my
stroke on.

We swop attitudes, exchange kisses
burned by lack of time, the drumming
of the night.

A communion of opposites, holy wafer
red blood’s hidden dregs in core of sacred
cup.

Nourished by the presence of you, taut
in summer air, riding the hook of a crescent
moon.

We wait for consummation, our fingers turned
to liquid and our tongues melting in the space
between meetings.

Pretty boys make passes, countries rise
and fall behind the effigy of my smile as
I think of you..

I’ve lost time in dark corners where the
pendulum swings, you’ve walked in blinded
alleys where the dogs bark.

This is a summer ecstasy, things are not
made without desire, and this desire has burst :
leaving us gasping.

Anger is a fire filament
a flame that slashes through
the pain of injustice.

My anger is a rod that keeps me straight,
upright in distress, it’s the scratches on the walls
from broken nails, the marks I’ve left.

Your vengeance is a cage
where you lure the dispossessed
with promises of strength.

It’s alright to hold the edges
smooth around the night
when you took me home forever.

Now we relate every Sunday,
only occasionally slipping into the slipstream
swimming in our current of secret abuse.

I try others on for size
and you wear your girlfriend
like a gabardine rain coat

buttoned tight against living..

Small spaces of light
that lead us from the outside in,
frames dripping condensation.

Still the harsh frost claws the land,
crisping the pliable,
transforming elements.

Myopic dreams of troubled seas,
reclaiming land and structure::
the universe exists before and after,
we are but evolutionary modules
struggling to understand.

Windows into our own definition of the past,
“Quick said the bird”
children rustling in the rose garden.

Through window panes
where the sky changing light
always implacably watches.

Snow blew in over sea
wind straight from Siberia
snuffed the sounds of night;
fox bark, owl hoot, bat flight.

Dawn was kind this time
myriad sparkle coloured snow
white blossom cascading from
my tree.

A perfect dusting of sky ice
lingered on the virgin snow,
wires hung heavy insulated
out of sight & the rooftops

lost their dowdy light
morphing to white dove feathers
leaving me, wide awake, see through
snapping at the brink of the year.

Determined this time to settle in,
bunk down, search for light
determined this year to hold my nerve
just hang on tight.

Water lapping slush
pushes potent on pebbles
out to sea fishing boat moans
& the moon glowers down
ill at ease.

I met a man today
walking on this frozen shore
windswept words we talked
of myriad things like oyster shells
and mermaid songs.

Sand banks lurk just
under the flood: seals bask
in January sun, we wait in limbo
dream of another beach
a midnight sun.

Too cold to sleep,
alone, waiting to be warmed.

Time moves so slowly it
catches itself, then stops

a curling ribbon of all these nights
before critical eternity.

Backwards I watch myself
alone with the rain falling in.

Drowning rivulets of opened sky
as I am.

Children sleep, out beyond this small
enclosure a grey domed sky,

there is no sentiment, nothing at all
except, time: twisting itself to laugh.

Speeded up skin flakes to dust. No change.
Quiet with cold’s fingers tangled in my hair.

I leave my mind alone to spin back upon
times cross, I slowly move beyond .

Old moon fades
behind tree’s arms
& the sky streaks gold

New Year’s Dawn.

This year I’ll
button up my petticoats
paint my eyes green

hide my heart.

This year I’ll
invite you in
to survey the décor.

Yes, this year I’ll
be more of me
than I’ve ever been

cast off the fetters
of memory, promise
to set myself free.