Half Unknown

Some things I am happy to share with you

Indeed I imagine you might take pleasure in the sharing

Other things I desire to keep to myself

Indeed I imagine they might improve my personal enrichment

On the cusp of these two positions 

I find my relationships waver

Just as previous relationships have wavered

Her name was; no I do not wish to give you her name

She was slim, bony & attractive, with wonderfully long hair

Carried through with an innocent sixteen smile

I could say that a mutual friend suggested we got together

That way a little more useless information would be divulged

We danced, we walked, we talked for hours; I often stroked her hair

Yet only once in earnest did I stroke her bare thighs:

There was a party, my parents were away

Perhaps they too were trying for a reconciliation

Her Levi's came undone; five studs pulled down, towards an

Unimaginable future; my wranglers swiftly followed suit

Half leaning against the dining room wall, with only our youthful

Exuberance between us, events destined to evolve in that direction

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Misplaced Sentimentalities

I learnt of the word rill

From a woman poet in Vermont

Was it wrong to build such a slice of water

Into my lovers garden

Not that the construction lasted

The symbolic landscaping vanquished

Shortly after our final inseparable separation

I remember New England in the fall

I brought home a fallen leaf

If I had been stronger

I might have framed the veins for my lover

Not that the token was lambasted

She, I dare to believe, escaped on occasion

Out by the rill, into my search for tranquility

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

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