First Lessons

And then you were ready
With your flippers
With your face mask
With your oxygen bottle

And now you are heading out
From the thirty-metre mark
Towards the diving area
In the deeper water

Still you are on the surface
Though I only know that it is you
Because I know that it is you

Any moment now you will be gone
Already the camera loses you
In the sun-speckled waters

Does this count as loneliness
Does this count as exhilaration
Could I go further and say ecstasy

Of a sudden my back pain is gone
Your joy is my joy
Your sense of adventure is my adventure

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Receptivity

With the sails
Tilted towards the horizon
You sail along the vast curve
Just in front of the horizon

Meanwhile the ashtray remains empty
No really, truly
Not once in the last thirteen years
Yet who knows of tomorrow

Wow that Coca-Cola tastes good
And so I imagine would
Being sat here, with a king-size
Peter Stuyvesant filter tip

Oh how much safer is nicotine
Via the imagination, or as a cast-off
From my neighbouring table
A couple in full-on drag and blow

How then to become addicted
To passive smoking, other than
Trawling the pavement cafés of
Paris, or Brussels, or Amsterdam

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Durations

There are only a few days
And tomorrow you go diving
Only a few days to change our ways

Not that I ever wanted
Strong (or weak) liquor
So early in the day

But perhaps breakfast
Of fresh fruit and juices
Out on the decking

And maybe a life-size picture
Of the sea, with the sun’s
Ripples right to the horizon

In this way to make a life
Or rather remake a life
A life which truly did happen

September then will be the month
When one door opened
And another door opened

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Arcish

Between the string of floats
Where the sand is certain
Each step one step further
Each line of sunlight
Makes the water ever warmer
One bamboo shade
In line with one hundred others

What was lost is found
What was found is lost
An unbroken curve
The horizons
Very own iteration
Yet I have no implements
For measurement
Either by degree or distance

Although I would say
That there is very little here
To support the point of view
Of the flat earth society
Who would do well
To construct a formula
For such an infinite curve

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Forgetful

My sunglasses are in the bathroom
I am in the beach cafe
There are stairs
And a lift between us

The lost money is now found
Safely placed in the safe
The test, if test it was, is over
I hope my response was proportionate

Already you are out to sea
Also yesterday
The boat trip to snorkel
With diving planned for Saturday

I will drink the Coca-Cola Zero
Then take a black Americano coffee
Watch the slight waves
Blow right to left

As if in a Chinese script
(Inscrutable to everyone)
Except perhaps yesterday’s captain
Smoking his continuous cigarettes

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Christopher's Collected Works Website