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
For nigh on a decade
Enchanted by tales
Of wildest places
Where rough edges
Bleed out to sea
Coarsing through veins
Lungs of the world
Clutching the land
For all its worth
From those who take, take..
I trip tentatively
Through swathes of natives
Unknowingly trampling
Rare plants
Smudging invasive seed
Into mud with sodden tread
No permission to collect
I take and take, greedily
Hoping vainly
To strike a fragile quill
A tendril root, a mere bud
To bring home all I love
But instead, I raised beds
Of shrunken dried specimens
Memories snipped from whence they came
Never to grow again.
Now I learn and dissect
Identify how similar or different
The naming of all things
Already taken place
A namesake now only left
For stone engraving.
A flourishing filagree
Sprawls across imagination
Possible only by
Space left between
Shelves of memories
Some on display
Others never seen again
Light and gentle movement
Stretch and bolster vitality
Sending hope waves through the brain.
Invitations to Sunday afternoon
Drives winding through rainforest
Sunlight dapples breath taking
To a hotel nestled in gentle folds
Of ancient mountain.
Return to oneself.
Bathe in possibility lain broken.
Dare not feed the narrative of turbulent deep dreams
Though if disturbed by slumber's provocative story telling
Hope awakens with bird song daily
Dreams escaped
To a reality which is perhaps dull in comparison.
Trembling knees, wringing hands
Short of speech, time demands
Nervous smile, staring gaze
Waking in a temporal haze
Awe of vast firmament
Cloudless starstruck night in tent
Firmly does the body know
Love of wild ancient lands does grow
Count the stars of heaven 