There is passion, there is zest,
And running down white pillars, mess;
Defiled temple, gleeful blaspheme,
The vestal pulls up her ankled jeans.
Rebuckles up to shushing sounds,
Reorders his shirt before they’re found,
A bruising kiss, a new spark to tinder:
But stop: she has to be home for dinner.
The questions that define our lives
are dotted over with hows and whys
though not in the way you might expect:
the biggest are not the questions we most respect.
Though I will talk of God and death with you
And probe the recesses of your views,
I am more earnest in having you explain
Do you yank bandaids off to minimise [...]
When I am in the surf,
letting my cork body bounce
along the foam;
The champagne sea bursts around me;
Splashing and thick with froth;
God save me
from kelp
that brushes, bubble-light,
my ankles
and reminds me:
someday I will drown.
“Muse!” I commanded, “Come sit with me,
And tell me what I should write!”
But the Muse grumbled and turned away,
Insolent, disobedient sprite.
“Muse!” I ordered, “Behave yourself!
Come guide my wandering thoughts!”
But the Muse looked at the window, humming,
Refusing to help as she ought.
“Muse!” I insisted, “What insolence!
How dare you ignore my calling!”
Then she got up and walked [...]
Though the Saturdays are colder now
And the arthritis
makes holding the fag harder;
She plays.
Zipped up, rustling coat,
She calls, hoarses loudly,
bangles jangle,
“Look out for the Goal Attack!”
Her ankles and knees,
Worn to wicker,
Grind silently.
Her lungs and throat,
Scorched to dust,
Rasp.
She urges the group to success,
Starring her girl, her triumph,
And tries to group hug the team.
On the way home, they [...]
My cat speaks French
But my dog does not,
Preferring to bark in Icelandic.
My boyfriend the polymath
Can speak to them both,
So handy: as though he planned it.
Between the three of us,
We manage to converse,
Into the warm spring evenings,
Occasional misquotes,
Only delight us,
And create humourous upheavenings.
Back, where the dust
is broken by footprints, back and forth,
along the floorboards, where the curtain cracks
are terrifying streams of light and audience,
where all is vibrating silence,
wait.
Time grows thick.
Suddenly all the moments,
the wasted slipshods
of rehearsal,
gather force and respect,
the smell of the dust and curtains
fuels the terror and the regret.
Back, behind the curtain face,
exhale.
The curtain splits, dilates, [...]
I have begun,
in the interests of health,
to run.
I have jarred my knees,
and incurred four blisters
on either side
of either foot,
and now each step,
(former blissful padded pace!)
is a hot and jangled effort.
I have not begun,
in the interests of honesty,
to find it fun.
The commute, the migration,
the mackerel swarm,
Hard fish, we teem down
the paths too-worn
to notice our fin-prints
our tyre marks,
we seethe in a mass
to scare away sharks.
The river, the road,
the path estuary,
the migration, the breeding
the feeding unwary,
shoal home and sleep
with one open glass eye
watch out for the sharks
and dream how to fly.
The silver scaled tide
of blind tradition;
Watch out [...]
It’s lazy late and luxurious
the sleepy Sunday afternoon.
There is a pause and, familiar,
the blissful fatigue that comes
from drinking too much red wine at lunch
and watching fishing shows all afternoon.
We had Sunday roast and then
lay on the couch, arms and legs about.
We watched a trout get caught,
kissed, thrown back for tomorrow,
and we talked about a trip [...]
