Red sky @ dawn

high V of geese

autumn tinges gold & red

the horses grow their

winter coats & the season

takes its final breath.

Night sky high as blackest soot

membrane of those distant stars

 Jupiter huge below the moon

& the milky way our path to

dusty death: & then there’s here

there’s now & how we watch

time float by. A stretch a sneeze

a stranger’s smile bequeathed

not promised till the hour

we rest our heads & follow.

Neither here nor there

up or down, shadows

haunt my days

yet bursts of sunlight

battle through the grey;

years have fled, like water

in a storm, fast flowing &

we can’t scoop them up

to live again.

‘Beauty’s wasted on the young’,

they said. In all the beds I’ve laid

my head the path has seemed so clear

till now.

An autumn shower, double rainbow

generations skip ‘n twist, the dead

stare hard.

‘I’m not this nor that’, Tibetan prayer

mocks me, & all the faces that I wore

desert me now

I’ve said before, the years have fled

like water in the storm cascading:

I cannot reach a destination.

Uncertainty & doubt have come

to call, once so clear now disbelief

taunts me.

But the robin always calls, the sunrise

in my eyes, the seasons speeding up

until I’m left with:

‘I’m not this, nor that’, or

any flavour inbetween

I’m  just a leaf blown

a perfume in the breeze

a speck of dust

as chaos reigns supreme.

N.B.

Tibetan prayer.’ Neti neti neti’

It rained in the night

the swish swash sound of water

washing through my dreams

drowning strangers in my head

places I have never seen &

songs that hum through me.

My old dog snores & stretches

chasing squirrels in her sleep,

a double rainbow shivers in

the morning light,

yes it rained in the night

washed away the sadness

staunched my grief

gave me mellow yellow

landscapes, one more day

of breathing in & out

waiting for tomorrow.