Need not be a bad thing
Laying eyes upon the world
Though one absent
Arousing beauty within
A momentary glimpse
An hour, a day
What of it?
It plays over
Again endless
Pictures of you
Parade through chaos
Marching bands
Entwining hands
Only mine at twilight
He kept a fossilised shell
Plucked from highlands
Of Papua New Guinea
Proof of the flood, he mused
It remained on window sill
Overlooking rivulet
Tasmanian native garden
Decked with terracotta pot violets
Greeting me at the stairs
A huon pine drooped drearily
In the shade on the way
To wrought iron tables and chairs
I would finish the dishes from fossil shelled kitchen window
Spying the revelry outside
Before bringing tepid coffee from new machine
At Christmas time
All the while forgetting
To call my own family
A thousand miles away
Shimmering surface
Barely warmed by
Autumn dawn
Cold depths hold
Mysteries unknown
Grateful for delicious cake
Left over from celebrations
Side glance conversations
Walking past to other table destinations
Qualifications on displays
Of generous affection
Home made, ends of yarning
Only small price to pay
Tid bits of life history
Scattered on forest path
Leading to bare timber hut
Alpine hills, no wood heater
Scaling walls with hand sized holds
Cold and rough chalk grip
Overhang semicolon coming
The weight of it
Slimming, championing own cause
Slough off personal flaws
Penning my life's work
To scatter into the silence
So it is to love the unknown
Grown accustomed
Sparse reply a gentle sword
To hang on her every word
Speaking sense to reason
A hard task to undertake
Especially when reason
Gives silent treatment
Only the echo of sentiment
Reverberates tentative
Across noughts and ones
Dots, pixels all night long
What is not relayed at all
The way I kiss the skin
Of cold bitten cheek
Sitting at the lights
Or how I warm your couch
Create a new world
Birthed by the moment
You gave me a glass of wine
Whole lives untranspired
Waking dreams, night sweats
Terrified of what belies
If they never happen
One who admires
Tiniest seed
Discerns weeds
From fertile grasses
Known by name only
Loved by many
Legacy lives on
In memories
Seasons borne
Fire spawns
New life a plenty
Do not try,
Pipes chorus -
To compete,
It’s not a game,
Chides a waiter -
With the apple
Of her eye.
Devotion decades deep
While you are merely
A drop in her sea.
Constant, awash
A reed among kelp forest
Slowly disappearing
Taste of salt tears
Sweat of remembrance
Incomparable to the love
She plucked from tender
Young tree
Senses seeking places
Where time stands still
Burden drifts away
Nonsensical rules fade
Sink to murky depths
Disapproving looks cling
To craggy rocks
Boom and crash of waves
Soothe the news of today
Diggers on parade
Clanging bands and gongs
While my heart simply
Called by siren's song
Maybe one day
Clear as a bell
Sound barrier
Dissolves
Maybe next week
Sweet like a peach
Sore words
Repealed
Maybe next month
Bright as a button
Story house
Reveals
Maybe next year
Poignant is the date
Self-love
Heals
Behind soft closed eyes
Resigned
Lights out
Play the reel again
Click switch
Tick of film
Coursing through
Ferris wheel of time
Bulb warms soft
Against the greyness
Dust smokes away
Again
In the park
Walking along chatting
With a friend
Observing absences
Post pandemic life
Look up
She materialises -
Wishes surprise
Creases in face
melt away
Helium smiles
lift the sky
Her eyes dart
Concerned for friend
I say nothing
Pretend
But quip on the cans
In their hand
Flashback to teen girl
Sitting on the Datto
With treasured women
The pictures she used to send melt my heart over again
Jealous I am
She laughs and introduces
The dog but not friend
An afterthought
Living happily ever after
Cranial incantations
I do not write
But summons memories
To illuminate life, again
Count the stars of heaven 