Driving Seat

I set off for my work

Under a full on, sky blue sky

This after yesterday's onslaught

Of snow and sleet and rain

I think of my two sons

Andrew and the younger Joseph

Each offered here to me, with affection

My daughter Emma, also with the bond of love

Riverside power stations

Play host to a degradation of expulsions

Moist droplets that paint blacks, greys

& faintly transparent mustards

Onto the skies pristine blue canvas

The young woman

A passenger in the car behind me

Becomes far more attractive when she speaks

Her vibrant animation brings a smile

To the days otherwise still sternness

From the Collection One Crow to a Tree - Love in Separate Houses available from Lulu

Backtrack

Truth of it is we don't ever return

Only once can you sing along to your mothers fur coat

Only once can you innocently stroke the inner thigh of expectation

That the once can be dreamed of

For a thousand days and nights or more

Is testament to our fearful powers of delusion

Truth of it is we don't want our doubts confirmed

If for only once all that we wished for would just happen

If for only once we could rise or fall way beyond the fornication

That at once we can drop those thoughts

As if a pebble on the beach, without ripples

Is ample justification for our no-nonsense processions

From the Collection One Crow to a Tree - Love in Separate Houses available from Lulu

Anniversaries

Ache; twenty-five years in the making

I also have to say

That each day your storm

Grows somewhat stormier

Fragrant flowers sneak upon me

As I wander through the canal-side markets

Dusty words throng around me

As I ponder among the older bookshops

To research their serious and frivolous titles

Oils and pastels paint intricate pictures

In the rivers and the galleries

As those erstwhile exploratory travellers

Wake no more to the love;

So long to make, so swift to break

This timely declaration may normalise:

Hold back the storm so to speak

Unless the storm of your broken love

Becomes ever more steamy

From the Collection One Crow to a Tree - Love in Separate Houses available from Lulu

Tricks of Time

In the days extravaganza of seconds

Might I share a few

In this anything but miasma 

I am able to steadily bring 

Mneme's sensitive voice

To wash peacefully over me

Still, almost silent moments within

Except for the flicker of the fires flames

Except for the lest forgetful petrified heart

Outside the wet afternoon brings breezy

Blustery wilder times to the treetops

Life is scythed through the weather vanes

I sway, I hope you sway too

As we swayed with the waves

That tumbled down

Onto the dune protected shoreline

I have no demons to slay, what's that you say

A few words to remind me of the good times

In this days extravaganza of recollections

Where I can always rely upon your insistence

From the Collection One Crow to a Tree - Love in Separate Houses available from Lulu

Sunday

The earthliness of the day attracts me

Slight drizzle, tight breeze

Blighted head after last nights

Light filled, late fight celebration

The stillness of the damp, limp leaves

On the sorrowful Laburnum tree

Mirrors the pace of my hoped for thoughts

If only a gardener, with a wheelbarrow

Could trip across the lawns, or if the

Delivery-men would nip around

With our artisan's shepherds hut

From the Collection One Crow to a Tree - Love in Separate Houses available from Lulu