It’s a dragon year

& the moon is edging full

illuminating mist over cobbled roof:

frozen river, slick, ‘n silver,

shadow of the willow pledges

‘Spring’, with her thin yellow hair

crying, as if to save the earth

from all our violent sin.

Hyacinth on my table

purple & fecund, as lilies fade

& I’m waiting for the ducks

to crack their eggs, exude

exuberant fluff to ease

my gloom.

What of you & I?

We’re silent like a missing sea

we’re constant like the rising sun

we’re invisible & like running water we

erode each other into new forms

as yet unnameable

You send me elegies

but the dead don’t care

they are mist through the trees

dust motes in the sun

shooting star on a clear dark night,

the dead don’t care

& we who remain clutch

at memory.

You drown me with tears

but the dead don’t hear

they’re the whisper of the waves

a glint in the sea, the echo of gull

on storm brewed day

the dead don’t hear

all that useless pain

has simply flown away.

You send me flowers

but the dead don’t see.

Are the colours for you?

Are the textures for me?

I count the years

a rainbow of trails

a fiery red dawn

a smile when you sleep

only noticed because

there is still you & me.

Time stretches,

elastic pull ‘n push

hand upon my hair

the eyes I thought

were lost

hours flick past

then it’s time

to go.

Time lies:

twenty years of distance

wither in our smiles

this feeling that we hold

can never be inspired

by others: though

we’ve tried,: my God

how hard we tried.

Time gifts us

moments you’ll remember

when I’ve turned to gold,

a ray of winter sunshine;

you’ll hold the laughter

& the light

we polished in

our hearts

till time

can go to hell

& leave us drowning

in this dance of love

one last time.