Eighteen untold stories
Of bedrooms, gardens
And torn down houses
Nine pairs of partners
Passing over secrets
As if so to live again
Your fondest moment
My closely
Recollected memory
And the young girl
In Australia, afraid
Of the outdoor khazi
Darkness, light; stairways
And rose red curtains
Spoken unwoken
With a gleam of the eye
Pass it on
Please, won't you
Why don't you
Softly, slowly
Tell me my story
A new book, bought in Leeds
On the day that IKEA opened their doors
For everyone to leave in an orderly way
Due to a problem with the technology
A day when clocks went backwards
And the blue and pink skies of autumn
Pervaded their wares over the horizon
To both sides of the six lane motorway
A day when the plumes from
The power station cooling towers rose slowly
For their droplets to cling on to the nothingness
Of the otherwise empty sky
A day before the expulsions
From the sugar beet factory turned sideways
At right angles, to be hit by the onrushing
Wild winds of the seasonally turning weather
A new book, a place to find a place
Not in the sky but flat footed, level headed
Yet with enough of envy and desire to see beauty
Before me, not just looking back over my shoulder
Why would you put those words together
You know; I love you, you make me laugh
Then you say you want to stay forever!
Christ, how much fun then is that to be
Sorry, yes I know
That blasphemy is not de rigueur
For only yesterday I spoke with the Jehovah’s
Though I thought they were unsure
Your words, usually a complete sentence
With a subject and a meaning
And sometimes even the trick
Of an hidden snare
I remind you
John Clare walked into
Or out of
The insanity sanatorium
With wind blown hair
Or maybe he did
Or maybe he did not
I have no way of knowing
You said to meet at six
I heard the clock strike seven
Oh what a dick, caught up in the thick fog
Of my own monotone monologues
I ring you on the mobile
Text to say I love you
Blow kisses out the window
Thrash around in a panic and a sweat
Why would I put these words together
You know; I love you, you make me laugh
Just then to look at the photograph of you
Sliding down the wires backwards
Fields of misinterpretation
Local girls on Friday nights
In the cell, mute
Without of words for explanation
A long long way
To where they might
Integrated and dysfunctional
Gives a purpose for those who care
The builders of the bridges
The even handed, with prejudice
Subsumed, doomed, laid bare
Somewhere else
The girl and boy both take
A beating, meeting once or more
Outside an agreed arrangement
Only love the curse they shake
Pick me up
Scrape that lousy last potato
OK I may have misled you
But hey
We'd had a drink
And you looked just on ready for the taking
Seven shadows of gladness
Imaginations as the cymbal trims
Mad and bad
Turn the vibration on
The concrete skims
High rise flats
And low rent houses
Roundabouts society slims
Why would you care
Until you yourself were there
Stillness in your rhythm
Your engaged smile shares your past
Provision
Tonight you sing your song to say goodbye
As you will tomorrow, as you did yesterday
As you may as well forever
Stillness is in your eyes
Your blue and purple fingers
They cast your fast precision
Stillness in your skin
Your leather wrinkled baggage
A chorus of the life within
Tonight you sing your song to say goodbye
As you will tomorrow, as you did yesterday
As you may, if, as for Ibrahim, you say forever
All the strains to chains of loss
You remain
The sane refrain, at such a cost
Only ten thousand hours or more
Incredible
To conjure up such a score
Of dark nights, comedies, and tragedies
The poetry, the music
The fall of past civilisations
When all that I had to say
In near or far history
Seven stories; and all of them of love
Semi tone
The sepia bone
Is still at last
The epigraph
Chromatic in mask
Sails for home
Sails for home
Beside the wholesome weather
Held together by clouds
And thunderous winds
The epitaph
Negative to task
Sails for home
Sails for home
