Soft rays breeze silver for waxing green leaves
Red berry hands beauty to stem strangled weeds
Crows hack out the skyline
Slime chewed rooting succumbs to their fate
Wood pigeon soothes hedgerows of dense
Sparrow space
Tall grass bows their seed heads
While nestling docks bring
Damp balm to the woodlouse
And the nettles sharp sting.
Intoning the bells of my brethren
Gasping within their air
I cling to this sofa as
Limbs and fire storms roam
through districts of carnage
That they once called home.
I pray that in this moment
They may see through my eyes
That they may be opened, relieved
Re moved by the beauty outside my door
Re-joined and re-made
Within this same planet
This same moment
To taste again the nectar of
Bees suckling yellows, oranges and
Yes even these blood red poppies
Shaded and shaved
Beneath the olive tree’s
Translucent bark.
Crack lip
Sinus block
Prostate creaking
Pills pop
Mirror
Misting
Sore i ache
Blood nick
Fused
Andrex to
Skin
Wrapped in
Towelling
Still I moan
Here’s to
The waist
That shoulda
Been.
Her new purple towel
Sticks fibre to skin
And wraps fat around a profile
Where my waist should have been.
I’m thankful for
porridge
unsweetened oat milk
windfall from neighbours
cheap honey like silk
fruit from the freezer
and the absence of bread
And peaceful, warm people
still breathing in bed.
Crotched
in yellow
small limbs
still forming
red faces
en twining
in prams
wrapped for
weather
two bundles
one yawning
engorging
the grimacing
face of
the other
as carer
gives alter
to mobile
soft bedding
new fawnings
she’s sharing
with any
around
their newness
her quietness
his tight
little frown.
Holly proud berries declare Advents chill coming
Castor-oil plants wilt lampshades light-green
Beige grit grips tight to the line of my treading
As wet crunching pathways disturb pigeons unseen
Clumping bamboo give sway to rose garden
Fragrant cut grass held captive by ice
A grey-hound in fur coat is dragged like an anchor
Delicate paws beneath sorrowful eyes
Haw frost show contours of squirrel deep searching
Twig trees survive by the skin of rats teeth
Wailing small children held snug by ‘Good’ ratings
Distantly join blue magpies bold grief
Rosehips and hedging and dampened stone walling
Border sweet Carmen’s park bench brass plaque
‘Enter each day with a grateful heart’ soothing
This stagnant breath morning to freshen its track.
For my work colleague Carmen Alfonso who died too soon.
city slowness 