I'd rather pick blackberries and never taste a bite
I'd rather go plane watching and never take a flight
I'd rather climb a mountain and not see the other side
Than to ever fall in love again with an absent friend

I'd rather pick blackberries and never taste a bite
I'd rather go plane watching and never take a flight
I'd rather climb a mountain and not see the other side
Than to ever fall in love again with an absent friend

Incessant is the word for it.
Thoughts come in such a way
Made a home in vacant spaces in the brain
Places erased when lifelong memories stormed out the door
Happy inhabitant an apparition now skips across the floors
Prepares coffee in my kitchen
Sits beside each morn
Far from me to give a cold shoulder - she is neither warm nor cold
A presence embraced for fear emptiness consumes the light of morn

Let me be the furry friend
That shares the end of bed
Or maybe shiny shell
Old fossil on your shelf
A favoured recipe
All smudged and stained with beer
Or how 'bout a deciduous bush
That flowers a month a year
A portrait of a woman
Whose eyes stare far beyond
A tarnished penny on the sill
You plucked from Nan's old pond
Whatever dear, I beg of you
I'd rather be a thing
Than considered a potential
Love, nigh despised by all who hear.

How one so accustomed
To heartbreak
Could mend and bend mine
Cure-all in one
Placebo the other
Pick which hand?
A limerant and her lover
Knows deep down
The match may cause to suffer, though
Much less than the world has shown
For standing on the brink of despair
A hard fall lies beneath
It might as well be love
That sweeps you off your feet
For on this feeling you'll soar
Find new paths to explore
Confusion sets in when alone on the moors
Looking back, you always were

There's only a sandbar
Between shallow salty feet
The big wide deep
There's only a weekend
Between work weeks
But a sliver of time
Between ok and not quite
I send along my proxy
My happiest self
To see you
While the rest of me
Self-soothes with music
Curled in the car
By the park

Oft times truly startling
Sitting in urban chic window
Scouring faces for reminiscing
Begone eras of small city life
Flash before my eyes.
Still, side by side
Caught a glimpse of spectacles nestled
Perusing the menu
Curls dapple the light
Listening to mouth and eyes, stout and wine
Slowly, savouring
Drinking them in
While presence is bestowed
Upon mine

Giggle
Appear older, naive
Ask of other's realities
Deny one's own
Speak well of all authority
Dwell in the home
Wear brown, baggy clothing
No colour or lipstick
Kiss your mother goodbye
Hug anyone who asks for it
Do not resist the crowd
Silence a quiet scream
Obedience a vow

Our eyes met over raised beer glass
Through colonial window framed
One street away your smile dances across your face
Leaning against concrete pillar
Alone, yet surrounded
By family and loved ones and theirs
I took my place standing still
Leaning against cold stone wall
Looking at you looking at them
The liminal space
Between my life and yours
So comfortable I've become
Looking at you looking at them
A whole hoard of strange faces
Lining up behind me
One by one
A metaphor for why you flew away
My family stand behind the stone wall silence with me
Invisible to all who call you Home
The back of your head and shoulders
Is all I see of the show
Your reactions much better entertainment
Your laugh like a chorus of music
Drowned out by decibels of crowd
Vocal sound recorded on cerebral vinyl
Memories played by fine needle
In daydream's living room
The place we inhabit
All along with words said
That never materialised
Fine dust that crackles
In the rare groove of 2021
Smash hit of 'us'
No amplifier

Do not confuse silence
For innocence of years
Nor err of grace
Forgiveness as
No evidence of blame
For all the words
Daggers and cloaks
Stored up for wintry days
Till sunny spring
A friendly ear
Does melt such icy ways

Similarities are endless
The only colourful one
Takes to the mountains
At Christmas time
Dances in the sunlight
Show of flit and wit
Across the sky
Then disappears before your eyes
Waiting all year long
To catch a glimpse of wing tips like blue eyes
So it is, with you and I
