Keeping Stillness

I feel the current of life
Fingering my naked skin
With a rhythmic and tireless tongue
And I see
The unstuck
Glistening in rows of nods that delight
A relentless stream of progression
An unstoppable procession
Of marching ambition
I envy them only
For the sights they do not pause to see
And that, alas, the error that fated me

Overstayed

I suppose you'd like to hear about
The ghosts of us
And how they've set up house
In the valley of my mind

Would you like to know 
That I can hear them chuckling
As they share a private joke
And how he's always chasing her
Around the garden
When she's trying to hang out the washing

Sometimes I can hear them breathing 
Heavily in my ears
But they make the most noise
When I can't hear a single thing

And it's then
When I wish
They'd spend some time
In your mind

Warm Chill

Summer's thaw is ending
Your blood clots with the chill
Sloshing through heavy limbs
Cold mornings still surrender to balmy days
Baking smiles 
But they're only being polite
For now
The sun knows it will soon 
Need to make some room
For frosty winds that arrive like unannounced guests
And make no apologies for the inconvenience 
And you'll put away your t-shirts and dresses
There's that blue one with the loose strap that slipped off your golden shoulder
Though you didn't seem to mind
And you remember
How his tender hand reached over
And brushed your warm skin mid-sentence
No you didn't mind 
The chill that time

White Shadows

White Shadows
Fill the empty chairs in waiting rooms
And stand patiently in shopping queues
They lie beside me
In bed when you're not there
And stand behind me in the mirror
When I'm brushing my hair
I see the White Shadows
They wait until you're gone
Then make themselves at home
They always pin me down
But on the sunniest of mornings
When we're smiling over breakfast
They're gone
I expect them when the clouds roll in
I'll roll out the welcome mat
And sure enough they come a-knocking
My pretty White Shadows
Never knock twice

Post You

Subconsciously
I'm burying the body
I had at that time
I'm delicately padding
My bony hips
My empty bosom
I will become
Unrecognisable
To you or I
At last there's no need to handle with care
I'm not that fragile package
Wrapped in a brown paper heart

Saturday Child

Saturday
I am your child
I run along your dappled paths
I detect the tips of lizard tails
Vanishing in brittle foliage
My cat's ears 
Hear the rustles of small life enlarged
And a blind eye is turned
To a scary world
A promised future
In a big girl costume
But the only part of her I want 
Is the sparkle and the colours

Frame of Mind

I tucked in the sheets with hospital corners
Tucked away the desire to make a mess of it all
I can slip in carefully tonight 
Without disturbing dreams
And barely a crest will rise
As I lie still
And still my mind as it tosses and turns 
My head's a mess
But the bed's a straight jacket
And I close my eyes

Chalk

Each day begins with a clean slate
So they say
And I am filled with hope and high expectation
But then I see
When I look closely
Yesterday's scribble
Faint yet still legible
And fresh, white lines
Scribed with careful intent
Cannot conceal
The faded chalk of old memories

Prickly

I'm losing my fur
And sprouting quills
So sorry
I'm not so soft and cuddly
Anymore
But you can love me from a safe distance
'cause this new look is growing on me

Musings

He's packed up and left
My muse
The sock drawer's empty
There's suddenly more room in the medicine cabinet
And in my head
I can do some rearranging 
In the meantime
And spend lonely hours sighing
And crossing out words
It's quality control

Silver

Did you see the fronds catching silver dew drops
And weighing down webs at dawn?
Perhaps you missed the silver trickle of the stream
Tickling pebbles and water dragons
Slipping from silver stones?
Silver abounds
Filtering through branches and from my spirit
Pooling in my eye and on my forehead
Emerging from scalps and flaking, scaly shins
Silver begins with waxy newborn skins
And ends beneath our crepey flesh
A silver blue
Our stifled blood
A greyish hue
And beyond what eyes do see
The silver light that waits for me

Hole

There's a hole
Where my soul should be
Someone stole it from me
I don't know when exactly
Sometimes it feels like
This hole is growing
And I wonder
If my lost soul
Will still fit
Into it