Just a few words
It is Saturday after all
The Christmas lights
Have been taken down
The parking fine
Has been paid
Breakfast was
Bacon, toast and tomatoes
With black coffee
Today I will tidy
Iron the bedding
Put away the shoes
Wash the dishes
Or at least a fair selection
From the above
New year’s day 2024
In Meadowhall
On my way to Sheffield Wednesday
Marks & Spencer is closed
Also the Prosecco bar
Which has the best coffee in town
Instead it’s Starbucks
Opposite Millie’s Cookies
In this my 72nd year
For the first time
I worry not
About spending Christmas
Alone, or New Year’s Eve
Spent in solitude
I have had many
Celebrations
And expect there to be more
Life is not a problem
It is a beautiful place
Thoughts are illusory
Who is aware
That I am thinking
Or of the depths of my thoughts
A passive desire
While I wait
For you to reappear
Not a cake to bake
Nor a cupboard to clean
Neither are needed this morning
To one side a dark blue sky
The kind which suggests thunder
To the other side, a silver light
Playful
Through the skeletal tree
(It is deep mid-winter)
Incense smoke
Flows down the fountain
Incense smoke
Rises to the ceiling
Up and down
Like the hole in the bucket collection
Of our hopes and emotions
And, as the smoke
Swiftly kisses, one wonders
What has happened
To the gravity of being
Do the words
Open up the reader
To gift a happy smile, or perhaps a solemn tear