tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88318619122031266802024-03-08T05:07:46.686-08:00From the FortThe Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8831861912203126680.post-14068373312405127012012-09-23T09:02:00.001-07:002012-09-29T06:03:41.727-07:00A long time coming<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sidney
Speaking<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You
were always older than any of us expected,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">sallow
since the first photograph;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">hair
glowing translucent through the dimness and the dark,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">red
curtains showing through the back of you<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">while
a sunset tries to flood the gaps between your bones.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">II<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I
heard your voice today<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">growing
into the room and rusting as it reached us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You
would have loved to know, we said,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">just
how much we’ve all grown<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">since
those old bones were flooded.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You’d
have loved to know<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">how
many of us have your brow or don’t.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You
didn’t crackle in the past<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">where
my mother sounded small –<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">you
were our giant, gently creaking,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and
would have loved to know.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Magnolia<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Flies
are all over your living memory<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and
you’re disappearing like a dot to dot in reverse.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I
play and reply what’s nearly your voice,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but
in truth it could be anyone’s.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s
just another part that couldn’t be photographed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And
if I was the double of your lost daughter<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I
wasn’t to know.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If
you’d left through the screaming front door again<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">you
might have been the one to brush my daughter’s hair<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so
it wouldn’t pull.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our
family might have made four of a kind<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">with
youngest and oldest oddly aligned,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but
fear of modern space and the noise that fills it<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">creased
your face until you felt it –<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">crossed
out crows’ tracks from each smile,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">powdered
you magnolia pale<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and
it was decided.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mood<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
sea is not just a shade of blue<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but
the cracked mirror of a monster.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In
this lasting mood<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">where arm spans muddle to make a truth,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">where the yarn splits double</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">we
can be a little bit new –<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">hand
print on Earth’s most frozen mountain,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">human
ash strewn over secret snows.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One
can never corrupt the other<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">because
the mountain has moved to marry the two.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In
this lasting mood<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">you
melt the wax onto the rare fabric<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">we
have found to live through.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<u><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Open
Windows or The Maximum<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With
the weather almost finding itself,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the
rain always beside itself,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">our
skylight’s been homing the night inside.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
weather’s been dropping in like the friend<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">who
mistakes politeness for patience,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">who
doesn’t know<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">when
there’s blind comfort to be found in code.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each
morning is as old as all our yesterdays:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it’s
been eleven days since I touched your back,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">sure
palm on safe plains,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">lost
map between landmarks of shoulder blades.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
The Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8831861912203126680.post-36054689591315065512012-06-19T08:16:00.000-07:002012-06-19T08:16:43.460-07:00Shorties<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>From the other side of the wall</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like iron filings to a magnet, fingerprints cling to
matchsticks</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
as you flick them curving inside a cold cathedral.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The glow dies out before hitting dry bricks</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and you lose all hope of illumination.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But in the huge echoed empty I feel you murmur</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and you’re no further away than you ever were.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>West</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On a clear day I can see home from here,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
if I climb high enough –</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
or I’ll inhale the pennies from the river bed</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
every time I’m low enough.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The ever shifting copper sings me out of here,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
rattling through my hair</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
like rickety fingers running through,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
always pointing West.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Sometimes the night belongs to me,</b><u><o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
like poppies spreading themselves</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
against a backdrop swollen blue –</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
red gone to sunburnt rust –</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the creaking furniture,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
paint flecked,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
filling Summer’s first garage.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Being Quiet</b><u><o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was Winter when you moved in –</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3 am would stick in my throat</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
like it was my very own</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and the roads were all resistant.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You had every reason to be real to me</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and I wanted to be quiet without distance.</div>
<br />
<br />The Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8831861912203126680.post-80258401691616754122012-04-19T14:38:00.000-07:002012-04-19T14:38:44.848-07:00Oldies replenished and restored.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Illuminated From Within<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the final chime of the grandfather clock</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">choice words, warm as mittens,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">witter from between white teeth –</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">flighty moths escaping into the dark</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">carrying your life’s dust on their wings.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Straight as they go towards the sticky glow</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">of a bulb that nestles in my ribcage</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">swelling and shrinking comfortably –</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a sponge for light particles.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Glittering stalagmite from the base of my belly</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">means we’ll never go hungry again.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like all the wasps’ whispers in the pollen</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">your life rubs against mine.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blind Spot<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When the whiplash of your ideas</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">escaped like loose kite tails</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I saw that familiar image</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">of someone fidgeting in a library</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">sitting tight on prickling feet</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">thinking hard, tongue against teeth,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">learning ways to capture</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">those dancing kite strings,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">those lost lanterns.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your futures went like quick little fish in a rock pool.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I tried calm,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">sought out all the possibilities of our alphabet</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">easily missed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then I remembered your outline.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The in between belonged to you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and I was calm as I never was,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">knowing the coordinates of the blind spot</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">black dot where the backs of us cracked open</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">into the searing white –</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">where all the mouths and eyes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in unison</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">exploded and were lost.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Soldier<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Looking up at The Plough that hovers above the house I grew
up in</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I realise that someday not far from now</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">you might kill a man</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to get out of a situation you’ll be stuck in.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As plainly as the kitchen clock speaks,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wonder if you’ll ever have to choose between</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">running backwards and admitting defeat.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You’ve been taking photographs on a low shutter speed</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">of a city I don't know any better than I know you;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can’t assume much about how you are,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">whether anything means the same to you as it does to me,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but just take care,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">walk steady holding hands with the other seven, please.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Untitled</u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br /></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m rolling wholly up</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in the stuff that makes you real,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">feeling blindly for twins for these limbs</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">cold pinned with Braille</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">where they should be new egg smooth.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Never bored with</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">kaleidoscopic shapes of thoughts</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">caught, undulating</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">beneath the highest sky</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">from a place where</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">miles ago we collide.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7am. I am.<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Letting the sober morning street carry me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">carrying you, clambering back</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to when we had an hour alone –</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">through seven o’clock’s slow attempt at snow,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in throbbing neon</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">today reads Welcome Home.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />The Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8831861912203126680.post-26948187200935974952012-03-06T16:25:00.000-08:002012-03-06T16:25:13.004-08:00One and the other eleven<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bare foot round the back of a house</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
walls too tight for twelve</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
you were photographed behind your brother’s shoulders</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
held and mothered by your sister</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
now a grandmother.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tales took shape there</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
of breaking bottles against concrete</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
making green glass shake into dust like sugar –</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
tales of little boys</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
vaulting high fences, propelled by the spring of fear</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
from angry dogs salivating.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The barking seemed enormous to you then,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
these tales were ticklish to me when –</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that defiant cow’s lick never sitting flat</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
tiny twist turn you gave up correcting</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
years before my brother and I</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
made for ungrateful babies with untidy hair</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
offering daily confirmation of all our kindred faces.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is so much fallen dust</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
blanketing with your old brother’s last letters.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I picture you watching him drift towards the March mist.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now he thickens the ground</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
surrounding my brother’s long left shoe,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the one you weren’t to notice turning</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
light and loose on the breath</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
of the nobody who knew.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Your brother, my brother</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
there</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
all too close for sight –</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
yours, the one who couldn’t last the Spring through,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
curled up behind heavy doors,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
left room for a small one to flourish into next April,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and he’d be mine, and his, and ours.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And you may never photosynthesise into your mother’s child</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
like the other eleven –</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
you were never fully exposed to her direct rays,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
her softest feelers always searching,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
just missing you in the shade.</div>The Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8831861912203126680.post-18303244096553963452012-02-19T07:03:00.000-08:002012-02-19T07:03:50.740-08:00<b>Norman</b><br />
<br />
With the gasping pauses in vapour trails above us<br />
you are intermittent.<br />
And I'm in love with being stuck<br />
<br />
left to decipher the paper trails between breaths<br />
in this morse code you left.<br />
I'm just one of the dumbstruck many<br />
<br />
one without the capacity to sound this one out<br />
without the reach to meet<br />
the almost touchable outline<br />
of the platform from which you speak.<br />
<br />
And you speak<br />
from where your corners folded in on themselves<br />
where someday preceding this<br />
you could have yelled.The Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8831861912203126680.post-31612282959558380402012-01-03T06:02:00.000-08:002012-01-03T06:03:07.015-08:00Thinking Smaller<b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My Familiar</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I remember you much smaller</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">hiding behind the same blue curtain,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was seeking you, the same old person</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I thought I ever was,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">scared that our familiars</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">wouldn't warm to who I believed I was to be,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">knowing you were already</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">greener, healthier than me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You were much smaller then,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but like the bulb through a pinhole</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was older then</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">my future passing on a foot sole.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Keeping away from the grey</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like the deflating bouncy castle</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">soft blocks of primary colour busting into the afternoon</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the moment the party's first parent says,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'I think it's time we made a move.'</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like, aged nine, when I stopped believing</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in the fairies living in my friend's back garden</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">who left messages between halves of torn blades of grass</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in a language only she could read -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">like that sad whistling heap of empty canvas,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a beast too bright for his colour blindness,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">like the old garden absentees</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I let you down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Colours dispersed behind us,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">tiny tens of toes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and made up pairs of wings</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">decoded unsaid things</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and became us.</span>The Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8831861912203126680.post-35276857015313350952012-01-02T11:45:00.000-08:002012-01-02T13:34:04.139-08:00When the branches began to fall<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A Mutual Frenzy</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That day hasn't resonated so much until today</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">when some zebra crossing in the city caught you</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in its stripes like a wobbly mother's arms,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">like the only forgiving limb of the road.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That day almost a year ago that I'm still trying to swallow -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">you felt crazy, you said -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">there was no one else around</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and the fear had manifested in the both of us,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">sunk so quiet, secret,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">took on some shape like reckless hilarity,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">some bone tickling impulse that shook our</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">little home like barley</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but we both felt its tremors as music.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The wind outside was up or it was flat,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the river urged on past -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">phlegm of everything we wanted to forget.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You felt crazy, you said</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and I didn't reply until afterwards.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You systematically found a chair,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">removed your clothes, wore a towel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You sat side on,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">back to the bath, calculated and blood sugar fuelled</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">as </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">killing yourself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And I didn't reply -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I gathered a good two feet of the hair you'd grown so long</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in case you ever lost it,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">you'd grown so you'd know where to find it;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the hair I'd poured over my own head in wonder,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">made you laugh with, worn as a scarf indoors with,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the hair you wouldn't let just anybody touch,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">made you feel weird, you said.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You felt crazy, you said, and I didn't reply until I'd</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">held those two feet that were no more</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a part of you than your wrist watch,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">until I'd taken the kitchen scissors you so fervently</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">offered, cut the creature dead to fall between my two feet</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">like sawdust. No reward for hunger.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I just want you to let me share your sadness, I said.</span>The Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8831861912203126680.post-78159991962579648922011-12-07T12:08:00.000-08:002011-12-07T12:08:24.345-08:00Grandpoems<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Full Up</b><u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is no shame in dining alone<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">because you’ll never be the only one<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">with a head full of tide<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and a lung full of hum<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to roll over that tongue with.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Grand</b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He was once the tallest policeman who knew how to be unafraid,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and now, still wearing a tie, he’s all dressed in beige,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">standing alone out the front of a house that whispers,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">painting the air with a wave that says,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">‘I think of you every day.’<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ten years ago today, a child with a wonky smile,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I watched him crumble –<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">hands trembling in the hands of my mother<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">who has her mother’s hands.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His tie was there, and his hair, to match his expression,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">was neatly flattened.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I couldn’t help but stare –<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">hope to never be consumed by a love such as his;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a love that should so completely,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so violently happen.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>II</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ten years ago today I would have known you better<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">if it hadn’t have been for my oblivious age.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve heard tell of times when you couldn’t leave the house<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and I wonder when I’m stuck inside<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">if it’s you who might have been able to explain why<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I sometimes can’t help but hide.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If I’d known we were to grow so alike<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I could have asked you questions,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">prepared for these lonely hibernations.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve got you buried in my bones and,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">some say, on the end of my nose,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and don’t worry about your village policeman<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">because each day I’m tugging on the string<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">between our tin cans.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Twenty-Oh-Four<o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the room where we couldn’t finish our homework</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">because we were too busy learning eye contact.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here, dizzy on my dad’s homemade wine,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the colour of Ribena, dangerous as gin,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">we slept dead until Sundays began to darken,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to find all of our friends had gone home hours ago.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We played hide and seek</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">with words we believed only existed written down;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">here we learned what our mouths are for,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">both the escape route and the cage.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the room in which we thought we were growing old,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">where we got stuck on one another</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in chequered pyjamas</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">before I could grab a hold.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>This dandelion sky</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">is fooling me into thinking</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that if I could just jump far enough to high five a cloud</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’d get a mouthful of that sweet smelling powder</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">my grandmother wore until the day she died.</span></div>The Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8831861912203126680.post-89957535184125883682011-11-15T12:12:00.000-08:002011-11-15T12:12:35.794-08:00Now that it's November -<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From the Bridge</span></strong><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I come here in every weather to see if it feels different.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I come here to feel the vibrations of scattered birds</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">landing around my feet, taking flight through my hair.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The slow water gives me exactly what I need -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">blurred reflections of the very same day -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">comfort blanket miles away to a sleepy sea.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I know I'm boxed in, often underground, breathing heat,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but here I become a much tinier me -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">one with fewer words for it all,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">one with eyes for it all, and teeth,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but a me without much else to speak of.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The shock of it all.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Throughout our lives we are taugh what to value,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but how can it be that after all these years</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">all it takes is standing on a bridge</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">looking beyond ourselves,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">learning where the edge is,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to shake and to shake any sense that remains?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All I can do, watching the water crawl beneath,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">is wait for an outer shudder</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to warm myself awake once more.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Letters of Words / The Words of Letters</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You always had my address,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it topped every letter I ever sent</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and each one I never sent,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and now that I'm spent with writing it down,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">tired of all this pressing on my crown,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it's dawning that there aren't the words for half the things I ever meant.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Accidental Orchard</span></strong><br />
<strong></strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you catch yourself eating the whole apple, cyanide seeds and all,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">don't be one bit afraid of the orchard that might start to grow in your belly,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">or the fruit that someday will fall.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Resting by day, flourishing to bloom during the night;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">playing Grandmother's Footsteps with the pull of the moon,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it'll sprout in rhythm with your sleep.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It will finally come to fruition at the moment you change beat -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">after a pause for photosynthesis -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">when dry eyes and sunlight dare to meet.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When You Disappeared Behind My Eyes</span></strong><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The night when the power diffused and you couldn't wake up,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I dreamed of you, fully clothed, no white sheets,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">all put back together, tubeless between the teeth.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You were walking away from me</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and your back never looked so defiant.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You couldn't turn or wouldn't turn around to see what you were doing to me,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">because wherever it was you were heading was illuminated</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">with needing you more than I did.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You continued walking but it was never certain whether you ever arrived</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and that's why your sister and your wife were still waiting for you at the hospital,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">watching for a flicker of light from behind your eyes.</span>The Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8831861912203126680.post-66626872188969269592011-10-31T14:17:00.000-07:002011-11-15T12:18:51.422-08:00Digits, negative space, and trying to stay still.<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Sleeping Lions</strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the first birthday parties I learned how to be still as a hungry lion hiding,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and when I can't stop moving, these nights,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I picture myself a big cat being poked in the ribs by my mother</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">who is saying, 'It's time to go home.'</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>The Long Walk to Stillness</strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The negative space around my shape still remembers how it feels to be anticipated.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As it is now, the blanket that sits snug around my mind is unravelling one stitch at a time,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">facing an early Winter with nothing but a single last thread for warmth.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And at the core, I'm no longer really here.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If I stand still for long enough in a busy place,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I forget my limbs and the mind forgets its hurry.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Everything slows and the focus of emergency is abandoned.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And I remind myself the heart has no part in this.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It fuels the blood that keeps my insides moving,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that aches these shaking limbs, yes,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but as soon as the digits are still,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the extremities, the eyes,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">everything is lost to negative space,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">who knows what it is to tessellate.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An admirable lady once told me that everything hurts the most when it's coming back to life,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and she'd be right.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Having Turned A Corner</strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was a time in the Summer of our lives</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">when I held my head under a tap in the corner of a field.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My brain froze for a moment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I looked at you, grinning back at a dripping me,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and I thought, 'this is it, this is us, this is you and me,'</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and so that image is forever preserved,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">frozen, in the corner of a field in a flooded corner of my mind</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in that, the Summer of our lives.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><em><u>The Middle of the Night Knitting Circle For the Incredibly Alone</u></em></strong></span><br />
<u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></u> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What we'd do is not sit in a circle</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">for a circle is indulgent, assuming,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">cuts corners with no escape route.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Four straight sides around the edges of a small room,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">space between, space for elbows and four millimetre needles,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and far enough to humour a sadness each to our own.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The curtains will be musty with the scent of old, too high to reach,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">they'll be set wide apart or pulled in, shut,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">keeping the cold out and the sorrow in,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">or the space out but a chill within.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What we'd do is talk about how there is nothing any of us can really say;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">nothing anyone can do,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">how it's only us who know the size and shape of our own negative space.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We will not discuss absentees,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">or the trembling of our hands and our knocking knees,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and we will keep our minds still,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">exorcise our energies out through busy digits</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and into every little knit, each imperfect purl,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">into a tea cosy for a loved one,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a blanket for a child we've yet to meet.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>(Untitled)</strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gently stirring in the morning,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">words leaving me in ribbons,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I feel everything, as if it were all new.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Under this weather that's only ever some shade of rust,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm still thinking of you and me,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and this is the furthest away from home I've ever been.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's the smell of cheap meat cooking,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and the shock of a fox looking larger than in the story books.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When the wind is up</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and the slow breath of far away cars is low,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll stand outside with my eyelids high</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and know that what I know is all I know.</span>The Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8831861912203126680.post-11598985772486287132011-10-01T02:13:00.000-07:002011-12-03T15:17:45.358-08:00<div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Shells 2</b><u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your breath goes steady into the dark, warm, setting the pace for your sleep.</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here lies me, amid another breed of darkness;</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">dark as ever, blinding as always, but without rhythm.</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the quiet we listen hard. Pressing one ear, covering the other,</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">we listen to one another’s shells;</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I strain to hear the shapes that the air around your breath makes,</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">all the colours of the dark emerging like a bleeding watercolour.</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile you’ll be folding the blank space into shapes that could be my shadow,</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and here is where we tessellate, trying to forget the space.</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Vanishing Point</b><u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ll watch you until you reach the vanishing point,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Waving all the while, just in case –<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ll keep one ear to the ground,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">feeling your footsteps fluttering far away<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in the hope that –<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As you drive across the bridge, I’ll climb the wall<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to see you rise and comfortably fall;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ll keep two fingers on your wrist<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">for every time I almost missed you<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">until we’re doing wonky high tens, if we have to.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And if you ever do the opposite of staying here,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">if you find yourself in the unsafe place,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m never going to let you disappear.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The only language</b></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">is the silence in the noise and the roar and the scream;</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the calm in the thunder, in the storm of the train.</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Walking and Waving</b><u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With a pocketful of crumbs I set off.</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Keeping my head down</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and focusing on the ground that moves towards me</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I walk away with one long wave that paints the air.</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My hair trails behind me like a sail,</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">my coat follows my feet like a tail,</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and the fate of my map is left to a pile of embers</span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in a place I know I may never find again.</span></div>The Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8831861912203126680.post-83861274612979458242011-02-17T08:56:00.000-08:002011-02-17T08:57:35.354-08:00<b>Treading Water</b><br />
<u><br />
</u><br />
We spent a long day treading water ten minutes at a time;<br />
learnt how to breathe through one another,<br />
live through one another underneath the salt,<br />
keep warm hugging nothing but our knees,<br />
keep smiling showing nothing but our crashing teeth.<br />
Between exhaling life in through my mouth<br />
and coming up from the depths to look at my eyes,<br />
you said, 'Now, if we face a shipwreck, we know we'll survive.'The Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8831861912203126680.post-29799097275730887292011-02-17T08:37:00.000-08:002011-02-17T08:57:05.443-08:00<b>From the Fort</b><br />
<u><br />
</u><br />
Wrapped inside the smell of you, all your being,<br />
the womb like warmth of clothes too large for me -<br />
a child looking into the night<br />
from the sleepy safety of a homemade fort,<br />
I make believe.<br />
I make myself believe that I'm inside out,<br />
that I cradle all your being<br />
and all my being<br />
in the muffled dark of my womb.<br />
He hears nothing but the echoes of air<br />
shifting worlds away,<br />
breathing itself in and sighing around us.<br />
I make believe the colour of his cheeks -<br />
their distant blush deep inside me<br />
and the silence of his sleep -<br />
an internal tide<br />
pulling and stretching me into a reflective slumber,<br />
until our heartbeats sound in chorus;<br />
a cappella; question; answer;<br />
the gentle chaos of a loving conversation.The Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8831861912203126680.post-60242049032402714682010-12-08T15:15:00.001-08:002010-12-08T15:16:59.751-08:00<span class="Apple-style-span" ><b>Homing Pigeon</b></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >with your head in my lap in the morning</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >this is one of the ways I love you the most:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >everything warm and malleable,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >slow moving</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >through honey,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >asking whether planes still fly on bonfire night</span></div>The Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8831861912203126680.post-61671164677783214642010-12-08T15:06:00.000-08:002010-12-08T15:15:10.131-08:00<span class="Apple-style-span" ><b>Snapped String</b></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >Everything is turquoise,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >offensively calm and spotted</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >with the paintings of children, twenty five by now,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >not improving anyone's immune system,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >anyone's nausea;</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >only reminding the infirm of what is impermanent.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >Water is strictly unavailable.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >Once the body is dehydrated we refill it with pseudo energy -</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >brown powders floating vaguely</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >on tiny ponds of murky lukewarm.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >And hands were upon him from every side,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >willing,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >speaking,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >holding him inside his fading body,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >and all the water was sucked out through a tube between the teeth</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >leaving a constant grimace</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >that implied a coming change</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >that never came.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >Thinking about what Sarah said, I was interrupted -</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >'He won't be here in the morning.'</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >And I believed that if I tried and tried</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >with all my might,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >I could bring him back to life -</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >and as long as I was touching him,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >even just a finger tip,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >he could hold his own torch high,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >but what kind of life?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >And I think that's when I began to watch him die.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >So we said our third goodbyes,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >and our fourth;</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >real this time,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >and then lost count</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >and let the music in our heads take over</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >and we did our own version of praying -</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >willing,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >and tapping,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >and moving to the beat we made together,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >quiet and sad,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >one little beat,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >until the electrics cut out</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >and we were left,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >one friend less,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >to wonder whether or not he had heard,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >whether or not he had dreamt,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >whether or not he did move his broken hand in the penultimate hour,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >whether or not his eye did flicker at the light vibrations of his sister's voice -</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >was he feeling as guilty as we were as he left?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >Did he feel sorry that he hadn't been illuminated?</span></div>The Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8831861912203126680.post-20877065416038442172010-12-08T15:03:00.000-08:002010-12-08T15:05:57.929-08:00<div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >From the Sky</span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" >I'm hopping across the pond,</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >taking your toothbrush with me,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >wearing your cotton skin</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >to be as close to you as ever.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >But I'm only getting further away.</span></div>The Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8831861912203126680.post-59675454564374430752010-08-12T23:02:00.000-07:002010-12-08T15:03:01.115-08:00<div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >Crashing, Fighting</span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" >You're my other mother.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >At the top of my family poet tree</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >you sit, above me,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >branches bending beneath us,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >groaning about how the blanket sky</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >never warmed us both at once,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >never stopped us both reading</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >one night when the moon</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >was cotton wool covered and blind.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >Shreds of my identity</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >compare to you uncannily</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >and I'm afraid,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >I'm afraid that I never met you,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >never looked wide eyed up at you</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >while you intimidated the hell out of me.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >You give me a vague urge to free</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >myself from any room I'm in.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >I wanted you to make me</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >leave the room directly.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >Stop moving me.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >You're who I aspire to see</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >and am afraid to see</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >when I stand at the edge of the sea</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >looking in, hoping to read the waves</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >for some hint of futurity.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >But I can't endure it like you did;</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >I too have been spat back out like a cork</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >and Mother, I'm glad,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >because when it all gets too much</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >and I'm looking into the waves,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >feeling nothing but grey,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >I pull my hood over my eyes</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >and retreat silently.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >Back to the shelter of the caves,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >back to stare at my paper face</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >in the mirror and seethe,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >write all over it in blue-black ink.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >Mother I'm afraid I'm real,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >too real, I think.</span></div>The Shy Poethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08259092976364155894noreply@blogger.com0