Urgently wish
To kiss you
Instead, waited years
Climbed high mountains
To coincide with
Long-held promise
Of blooming again

Urgently wish
To kiss you
Instead, waited years
Climbed high mountains
To coincide with
Long-held promise
Of blooming again

I barely remember the wall coming down
Though tender renowned
Perestroika and glasnost
My Minsk pen pal
Whom I nearly visited
If not for that iron curtain
A downed air plane
VHS player was their request
For duty free on the plane
From a 10 year old
Broken wall boundaries
Parenting –
Though missed a trip
To America
With my swim club
Too young, they guffawed
Knotts Berry Farm
Apparently more dangerous than
Newly formed USSR.
Wholly unbroken
The line between the time
You told me all your stories
To now
I write them out
Though not mine to tell
Story keeper, holding closely
Treasuring artwork on cigarette packets
In New Orleans
Erecting tents on byways of Canada
Evading bears
A sense of place is important
Venturing out beyond all civilisation
Loved ones' names in acknowledgements
On all the field papers
I fade and fall rather than reach for such stardom
The earth and all its impact
Wakes me from timestamped memories
With beers in gaudy bars
Canadian moosehead overlooking
That look, watching waiting, startled -
Only to flee into the wilderness again

Blustery spring
Rattles my windows
Within
Batten down the lids
Promises of snow drift
Footprints on photos
Places I never go
Lift my mood somewhat
All I know
Is to write my heart out
Send wishes on the wind
That is all I can do
When the wind
Whips through me

Dancing in waves
Clifftop winds
Faeries on parade
While I trip down
Sandstone path
To the place where
Minutiae of death
Washes ashore
In shells and stones
A place where love lived
A childhood once before

We leave
And let leave
All the ones
We ever loved
We cannot keep
So let them sail
Out past horizon
On winds of change
And do the same

Horizon begs me to come
Envious of all other
Lines I draw in my life
Its endless encore
Whispered in the waves
Come to me
I'll save you

A tattoo
On my face
It gets me in
To some places
While others
Thrown out
Walking the streets
Some stare obligingly
Others look away

Just look upon the face
Of the one you love
Whether warm, soft, kissable
A cold screen digital
Or black and white frame
Tell me how
In many ways
Over seemingly endless days
Though memory, pixels, ink
Lost or faded
Throb of the heart only grows
Stronger each day

Climbing Sundew, Drosera planchonii, the bridal rainbow.
Come and gone
Timestamped memory
Fagus leaf fallen
A longing for reunion
That may never come
New leaf limb display
A boundary laid
Come summer -
A channel crossing
One I aspire to
In my lifetime
Though shifting sands
Will change arrival
To friendlier shores
