This chill spring

takes no hostage

 

blossom hovers

on the brink

 

& every breath

is hard, rattles

 

through.

 

I’m closed

in from cold.

 

You called

again, as you

 

sometimes do,

 

& life peeled

back forty years

 

evoked us

shining new.

 

You found me

laughing, in that

 

turbo crowd:

our love a dream.

 

I remember

every charm

 

we stitched,

on our bracelet

 

of desire,

 

yet now we talk

of children,

 

grown & moved

away.

 

Your new love

cleaves to you,

 

like designer

lingerie,

 

& I fly free

as I always

 

promised to;

 

waiting for

sun’s molten

 

heart to

heal me.

 

.

There’s an ‘absence’

in the air

 

As if a puff

of sky has

 

skipped a beat,

swallowed a rainbow.

 

If memory is all

that’s left then

 

‘moment’ matters.

 

Sunlight on your hair

your human grace

 

that filled our hearts;

 

there’s ‘absence’

in the world today:

 

this spinning globe

of blue has broken

 

you:

 

I used to wonder

‘why’?

 

That mystery’s

now clear

 

we hold the key

as infinity

 

draws near

 

yet I didn’t hear

you going.

We are

crumpled versions

 

of our

 

silk & satin

selves:

 

a blip in DNA

has washed

 

our youth away:

skin once taut

 

has melted

with the heat.

 

We are

crumpled versions

 

of our

 

silk & satin

selves

 

peering out

at someone

 

we once

knew.

 

We are

hidden

 

in these

craggy

 

cliffs & folds:

 

nothing

we can do

 

will rearrange

the change;

 

& those of us

who rushed

 

away,

 

are waving

wrinkle free

 

as life

defines us.

 

Sun spots

jet trails

 

early morning

fly by

 

clouds wander

left to right

 

&  the east wind

blows itself free

 

leaving us to try

another budding.

 

You gaze out

contained in

 

rectitude:

 

I’ll be with

you

 

by ‘n by:

 

sunlight

rain drop

 

turn you’ll catch

my sigh

 

eternity to

tell you

 

how I love

you.

 

 

 

It’s a braw

sky

 

iron clad

white cold

 

snow fall

flurries

 

steel lace

crystal perfect.

 

My garden

dreams of

 

spring:

 

earth hums

its bee song:

 

but for today

we’re shuttered

 

east wind from

lost smile

 

freezes all

intention.

(listen here)

 

There you are!

 

Appearing as if

twenty years

 

is just a day.

 

We talk of life,

not death:

 

the long sleep

that morphs us

 

back to sky dust.

 

We never mention

‘it’.

 

How you’ve missed

all the important things

 

drifting away like that

on wings of sleep.

 

This isn’t what I meant

to write, but time, distance,

 

have dissipated anger.

 

I can cry, but

can’t say your name.

 

Do you know why,

there is no why?

 

You said to try

& I have:

 

random circles

of ‘try’,

 

spiralling high wire

to high wire

 

finding meaning,

for others.

 

There you are,

young still;

 

I hope that I

arrive in your

 

next dream,

 

so pristine clean,

so smiley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Storm brought

dead starfish

 

to the beach,

 

five fingered

stacks of ocean.

 

Tide washed

them out to sea

 

leaving only

imprints.

 

You follow

me in sleep

 

impressions of

the life we

 

lived,

 

battered on

the rocks

 

of years,

our dream

 

selves

linger.