it was the innocence
of a question
that floated across me

‘would you rather..’

like an oversized bubble
readily iridescent
on its surface

‘live for ever..’

hiding a universe
of existential depths

‘or to never have..’

that stopped me short
I shirked only for the time
it took to breathe

‘been born at all’

a life lived in Bits
thins and pales

let the sun dance
across their eyes
and pixilate their hair

a step to the sand is
what young minds
were made for

a douse of the sea
a scent of our earth

to stitch in
undeletable smiles

 

the keeners have come
to shoulder away the dying light
and sit heads bowed
in a moribund grey

as this night falls
with a dark that
gently folds us in
and shields what
we cannot see
until the dawn
our reimagined morning

 

she’s been walking hills
pulling through sand
and a shroud of mist
that her buttery breath
curls in front of her face

but hopeful edges of light
bring dawn to the sense
of her new beautiful
a focus to a clearer view
of where she may go

our broad horizons
have narrowed to
witch finger peaks
too thin to call home
too cold to give warmth
not meant for this world

‘there’s someone in my head but it’s not me’    Pink Floyd 1973

 

she sits and stares
palid porcelain thin
waiting to be told
when to go

looking down to the woods
where dark birds wheel
in sensuous veils
eclipsing her view

they bring no comfort
from the tumble of
perilous voices she hears
that come to her un-invited

as the strangers at the window
who stole her daughters face
pinned it to the wall
with her certainty and will

and crouched by her knee
waking a smile from the past
with a stroke of her cheek
as fleeting as her breath

snark tracks lead
through the brush
claws out
strafing the mud
be careful how you
pick your path
which poisoned fronds
to push aside
which turns to make

their golden song
will weave false
threads in your ears
and draw you like
a moon pulled tide
to a hidden grove
their craven moot
where they gnaw on
the bones of their young

her hand rests
gentle on the heather
with it’s thousand silent bells
not persuaded by
the unsettled breeze
to give up a song
but a whisper instead
from the sea

always she waits
pinned like a dusty moth
to a promise and a doubt
her hope chasing the lost
fire of a sunset over
the hungry ocean
a devotion to redeem such
joy in her heart again

 

a blue coraled night
saw me away
the catch in my throat
bagged up with my bones
in a care lined sack

I watched steel birds
cry their farewells to the
naked amber streets
of my sugar grimed
balm of a city
it’s resonant hum
my ambient song

they took this fledgling
to disappearing shores
and a stretch of sea
that was just
a pig with wings
until the wind rushed in
and pulled me away