I 0 < II An eye III behind the bush; the whole IV face, twin- starred. Lord scorcheth. I can crawl but, … there’s skin where a scar was. You was. Framed by the abstract beauty of the flame, slow but curious as…
afterbirth
hard the cold night homeward hard scraps on the table- cloth bread wine dregs a soup bowl nothing right? what happened & was it worth it?
Dancing Light and Liquor
What, he said, is poetry? A chance, I said, to look at things differently. Bollocks, he said. But, surely – He was steadfast. It’s nonsense. I countered: Without, you get wet in the rain; with, it is a scent, falling. Piffle, he said. I poured him a drink. Sometimes, I ventured, do you not see…
diary entries
16 June 2018 If a cat, say, or a dog, lived as long as we did, what then? We’d be stuck with the same pet which might work, depending/ 20 June 2018 The dog 2 doors down wears a dark frown like it wants to bark but knows there’s no sense in…
Just Be
Lose your lie in the amble truthWalk this circle of mothers criesThe lunacy of holding on to those opaque streams of lightStreaming through fields of pink and purple orchids,The songbirds singing Because you can’t see the roadDoesn’t mean you shouldn’t trek the pathLight comes to thee who seekDarkness is blindA blanket of dark matter I…
at the library
am lost. wondering. the aisles. like years gone/to come tumbling: the librarian wordless & when i talk & she talks i’m not listening & i’m broken also, & there’s Melville, Faulkner… high on the shelves. in the 20 years left to live, i’ve thought to become intimate with, listen; become what i’m not,…
Keep the dirt on your potatoes.
Keep the dirt on your potatoes. “” “” “” “” “” “” “” “” “” “” “” There is something true about the taste of the humble. Those born of the earth seeking no higher demeanor. There is depth in grit. A flavor of the soul. I am what I am… no better dressed than…
hysteria
You could walk me home all night & I, you but one of us must break. It isn’t hard, if you think of it in the morning, as you would other business. Granted, stars shone, like a Van Gough, blurred by light, & high silhouettes hung, & arched windows; & we run…
You, At The Front Door
Now that I am outside the house, I can hear the glass beads on the jug. I see you, bent, at the radiogram, a record, Sailor, close to your glasses. I can hear the click, too, of the arm, then Pet Clark – Sailor, stop your roaming – and your light feet on the floral…
breathing
breathing the sea like this ‘full tide’ it’s said breathing in more than your chest can hold can only let go the sterns swinging out and round in the pull downstream shell lifted in line in bending of the water dumped forward slumped back ‘waves’ it’s said the pohutukawa in rain edged under with murk…
nightly
When the day’s laid low, rolled by the new moon’s blade & the dark vines bend to the wind; when the flax is wild, risen from the flood, dance as the flame does delight, to purify old bones. Praise the lord.
what am I without you
4 [an excerpt] what am I without you telling me? to look upon us, two of us in darkness, with barely enough skin lit to establish our age, the gender or the race unharnessed from your own density, even that against the odds beyond our reach, a some‘thing’ always is and doesn’t offer proof of…