No room at the inn
For fair weather friend
It is rarely so fair
So close to Antarctic
Even in Bermuda
Smooth sailing unlikely
When a meteor
Millions of years ago
Can still mess with
Direction finding
Compass swirling
While land locked ones
Hang around in bars
Drinking Sunrises
By the glass
Why is the needle
Always pointing South
Where the shadows are cast
By the winter sun?
To those in motherland
We are indeed upside down
Haymaking
Sunshine and rain
Brave one who
Hops onboard
Riding forward
While others gather
Receiving stores
Bailing and loading
Sundried piled high
Wheat and straw
For each living thing
In community
Out of rain
Hoping greenness
Had gone away
Save spontaneous
Combustion
Meanwhile few
Content with
Love's gleanings
Slim pickings
On the fringe
Taking only
What they need
To feed or bake
Wheaten loaf
For family roast
Horse or goat
Stave off hunger
Together
For one more day
Failsafe friend days
Filled with laughter
Topdown wind in hair ways
Hope your headscarf stays
The biggest smiles
Reserved for little
Sister dearest
Keepsafe creative memory
Easy hair down
Help tailor made
In a bind
Pave a way
Waves over statelines
Saving grace
Voice a soothing space
For centuries
Women on the verge
Of finding one another
Peace never needing
A reason to love
Dancers in dusky streetlight
Seven forms converge
Reflecting blue
Evading the darkness
Superceded by
Spectacular collisions
Supernova sky
In the millions
Years of stillness
Like one looked
In the mirror
Saw the other
Longing to look within
Each other
Forever
Live like
No tomorrow
Casting stars
Into orbit
For a hundred thousand
Tomorrows
Light years end
Replaced by dark nebula
Crash course time and again
Pressing upon the moment
Tales trail behind
A particle of dust
Floats by
Miniature universe
Beyond our eyes
The tragedy of poetry
Is how Atwood sees
As the words are written
Inspired event complete
Like an epitaph
To memory in bold
Detail delightful sighting
Though future is untold
No assurance can be given
By simply putting down
Ink to paper, finger tap
All prophecy unfounded
Into future like Le Guin
A new world expounded
If all society's whisper
In amplified stereo sound
A foot tapping, toe curling
Secret I keep
That all stories begin and end
With us somewhere in between
Grey lady hanging on
To the edge
Overlooking harbour view
Slender and proud
Twisting round to glimpse
Decades of bobbing heads
Like buoys on waves
Coming in shivering
Brave showing her age
Engraved beauty
Limbs reach out
Welcome stranded men
Come warm yourself
On the rocky shores
Casting a shadow
To danger marker
Pointing windeward
Shaped by her forces
Invisibly caressing
To bow and bend
"The morning kindles
Cold pallid skyline
Wind biting
Delicious chill
Pond, shining like copper."
- Dead Souls, by Nikolai Gogol, p.271
Keeping you at arms length
While holding on to life
Silence so you'll never hear
The danger and the strife
One day V day will arrive
And in your arms I'd fall
To stand on every corner
Friends and family and all
When sheltered under door frame
To avoid roof falling in
Imagining a life with you
A fantasy we're in
Like stepping through a cupboard
Into frozen landscape bare
Meeting little furry friends
Sweet treats if you dare
The realm of fiction is complete
With swords and battles too
But surely it's the safest way
That I can be with you?
Darkness lifts like a curtain
Raised to the rooftop
Of palladium
A stage
Dancers, jugglers, seers and wanderers
Mill around in their thousands
Wondering who will speak
On that day
Mumbling and speculation
Fill the open sky with heat
Distress and devastation
Trampled under feet
No authoritative voice resounds
The cacophany dies to a whisper
The only words recited 'tween
The lover and the listener
I wish to be your human
And you could be mine
-My feline friend says proudly-
I hope you don't mind
Such bravery to crawl on me
And underneath the covers
To twirl between my legs
Kiss my nose like I'm his mother
Such boldness is endearing
For what else really matters
Than telling your favourite human
That their absence leaves you scattered
To be near you every day
Or even once a week
Would make all of the difference
To the life I'd wish to lead
To be with you and drink
In the regular everyday
When I run out of words
And hear all you have to say
But dare I say I am
With you always anyway
Only river between
Not an ocean or a fray
- Rest assured I'd gladly swim
The distance any day -
Can you believe my thoughts
Are often interrupted
By the time you liked my shirt
Or by a joke, at me, directed
The time you sat beside me
Every word believed as true
Reciting leaves and lemon trees
Realised was all for you
Painting of a picture
With those stories far and wild
Imagine all those places
From your thoughts to ease my mind
A literary meeting
Like some tower here in Oz
Where heart, soul and mind
Find out they were there
All along
