It was a gift
And for sure
The givers knew
That it would bring me pleasure
What they didn’t know
And neither did I realise
That by close reading
Then using for inspiration
That I would be released
Freed to write in a new way
Making many past and present connections
Both from near home, and also from, yes, from so so far away
All around are artefacts
Bought, brought, befriended
Corners checked, crossovers crossed
Down deep, deeper down, deep depths
Except elongations, elongated exceptionally easily
For flowers, for floods, for Flodigarry
Goes, go, great garrulous Gorbals
High, higher, heavy, heavier, hiatus
Inside, in, inward, indescribable indeed
Joy, joy, joy jumps, jeeps, Jasmine, Jerome K Jerome
I felt good
One footstep after another
Up the stairs to the landing
I felt light
It was light
Though I had climbed these stairs earlier
In the dark of night
Then I was caught, woken from sleep, in pain
But now I could go anywhere
And I found a book
Which might once have fallen in the bath
The silence is broken by the cry of a child
That the lack of light
Is used to evoke the mystery
Of the night of the daring raid
The glass is left
As cut out by the robbers
A rectangular opening
Just large enough
To lift the tiara through
Whispered voices add to the atmosphere
Of loss, and magisterial bindings
And thieves or vagabonds
