Never ending

Wine trembles atop my glass
A red dome pegged rim round
So too the nagging madness in my mind
Melancholy picked and fermented 
Swirled about
Inhaled
Spat out
Sweetness savoured 

Mania intoxicating
Hip hoorays of light infuse my vacant veins
And I am lord of word
And doubts become my stepping stones
Up I climb pillars of fear
And so, the toil unending
And hope will surrender 
Long before my wretched bones

Regret

He has chosen
And so she too
To sail with horizon
Always in view
They've not the gall 
To face the sea
It's calm embrace
It's treachery 
Their ships will bob
On waves subdued
A life curtailed
Love unpursued

Prodigal Sun

When I saw the full moon 
Fade with the light
I recall yesterday's sun
As I bid him goodnight 
And now he returns 
I'd no doubt that he could
Probing warm fingers
Through shivering wood

The Limits

There that endless horizon
Does it draw near?
Is there a limit to possibilities?
Do ideas run dry?
How high is the sky?
He asks with limited sight
He hesitates
With limited faith
He stumbles and falls
Over obstacles he himself
So carefully laid 
On a path through the clouds

Weightless

She's tossing away that heavy, old hide
That crumpled carcass
Her new self
Soft-bellied, exposed
Metallic green and golds
Shining in the light
She's looking for a new audience
Dedicated fans
Acknowledged
Respected
Not merely admired
No, enough admiration 
It's time to love
To be loved
The weight of it
Slows her down
To an unbearable shuffle
To love
Is to fly 
Nothing will lure her
Back to rocky ground
She flies over blue lagoons
And emerald forests
Yes
This is her heavenly destiny

Vessels and Vehicles

A silver fog seeps into the black
Like water snaking through a thirsty river bed
Blood red
And the gaping cracks in my soul are quenched
Mouths stretched open
Fighting for a meagre morsel

Life
Going for a ride in a runaway vehicle 
Trapped in a body immobile
The city, the sea 
Wherever its taking me
Not fussy
Though I should be...
Days become nights become years 
I take the wheel 

Vessels and vehicles
Going somewhere 
Going nowhere
It's my where 
Mud or dust
I've no time to admire the landscape
Not lost
Just making up for lost time
My time

The End of The End

She is the hot dust 
Of a bustling highway 
Left to settle on charred eucalypts 

She is the barren vine
Of a muscat grape 
Left to languish at the end of her yield 

She is the vacant web
Of a Golden Orb
Left to battle a lonely war against the winds

Foretold You So

The clairvoyant is telling me things we all want to hear

My mind joins reluctant dots

Coerced to form unlikely connections

But one cannot argue with a well-armed soul

Reckless, relentless

With nothing to lose

Except denial

Hairy Soup

The faintest trace of garlic lingers from his fingers

Reaching for a stray lock of hair

Falling across my mouth

And I am suddenly deaf to words that spill from his

Until the short of his kitchen capers plays out its final scene

In my mind

And silence falls as he waits for an answer

To what I wonder turning red

And I ask instead what he cooked last night

'Minestrone' he said

The Safest Place

She wants to lie in his arms and bury her face in the cave of his warm neck

And have him kiss her forehead like a child

And at that moment, even if this world began to crumble like an old sandcastle 

And every cosy home turned upside down and shaken

So that every remnant, object and evidence of human existence

Was erased from earth's memory

She would not be afraid

No, she would not

Edited

Yesterday's winds

Sweet and warm

Sweep me away to the hours of innocence

Back to the sticks, back to the stones

To crooked smiles

And dripping cones

Sneaky crank calls on summer nights

Healing knees lumpy with mosquito bites

Dusty cheeks turned to mud

Skipping ropes and silly rhymes

Edited

Tomorrow's storms 

Bitter and cold

Sweep us away to the hours of delinquency

To clenched teeth

And dripping coats

Sudden invasions on winter mornings

Brought to our knees after countless warnings

Hairy cheeks turned to blood

Shouting vengeance and silly rhymes

Edited

Forgotten Pleasures Forgotten

I once relied on these things

That promised pleasure

But what of late?

These things remain unchanged

Yet I have not

Where are her buttons and strings?

Where are her trigger things?

The giggles

Those painful belly wiggles?

Now a passive chuckle

Forced, polite

A light tap of the mallet 

No swings, no 'ring-a-ding-dings'

The carnival, silent and still

And somewhere the echo

Faded and faint

The music

Too familiar 

Dance of the Heart

My heart is like the sea grass sprouting 

along the dappled ocean bed

The current its desire

Always taking lead

A gentle waltz

A brutal tango

Where secrets find refuge amongst her wavering blades

They cannot remain concealed

Against a relentless force

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Yesterday was but a shuffle

In scruffy, floral slippers 

With old gum on the sole

I want to stamp now 

Stamp on the snow

Stamp on the dust

Stamp on the grass 

And nurture my callouses with quiet pride

The unsightly evidence of an adventure had

Tomorrow is for skipping

Skip away young heart

Skip away

The Old and the New

She wants to escape the familiar

And accept a stranger's hand

Where he'll lead her blindfolded

To a never-before-seen land

All the morsels sampled there

exotic and obscure

And timid creatures materialise

Drawn by her allure

While all her abandoned senses

Return like the fold at twilight

And bitter memories are hastily snuffed 

Locked, cast away, dead and finite

Alas, this wonder wonder

Will too one day become

A lacklustre mosaic

Well-studied and humdrum

Out of Reach

The rope

The branch

The proof

His hand

Stability

The wave

The dawn

The sign

His scent

Contentment 

The time

The itch

The word

His surrender

Relief

The Second Death

She is the grey

From the swipe of an oily rag

Across colours

Forced to play

Like stubborn children

Meeting for the first time

And any evidence

Of harmony

Surviving her angry smudge

Will be smothered

The View from You

Stay where you lay

Let me take your hands

I want to explore

Your mysterious lands

As I trek your terrain

Refrain your dissent

Guide me instead

As I make my ascent 

I find corners lurking

With secrets hidden

And dreams lying dormant 

With desires forbidden

Your tide is high now

Love, let me dive inside

Let me find dry ground

Your fertile soils

Your highest peaks

Your untapped oils

I shall pursue 

Without relent 

Without eschew

All this I plan

All this I'll do

Until I reach

The view from you

Surplus

She's hoarding love

In stacks tied up with boot string and shreds of lace

Her tender kisses stored away in boxes

Stacked in cupboards filled with longing

And in the drawers you'll find embraces

That flee like marbles escaping

From velvet pouches loosely drawn

Foreboding Joy

Her eyes were vacant

Like a beach house in the middle

Of a blistering winter 

Her mind silent

Like a stadium pre-dawn

No speed

No sound

But a gradual slowing down

Of necessity and urgency

And a delicate joy

Stirs from a slumber

And rises like a vapour

Across her skies

Personal not Business

I can't sell your lies

Don't make me

I'll spit them out like rotting teeth

I can't pull your wool

You couldn't fool me

I don't have the capacity

I'm not a puppeteering puppet

I'll dance when I want to

It's my choreography

My stage

My play

I won't even play dumb

There's no self betrayal

Or apology

I don't care what you think of me

It's none of my business 

Anyway

Intensive Care

Can't stop

The thought tsunami

When will it end

The slow rush of debris?

Destroying all that was me

Soul thieves

Leave no precious stone 

Steal my sparkle

All my remarkable 

What is left to love

Of these remains?

Nothing

And what to give?

To give?

Everything

Always

Always

Fine Tuning

Wrap me

In my blanket of despair

My tears don't absorb in the cosy mohair

Nothing's wrong

I like sitting here 

Just me

Humming some made-up tune

Sounding better

Than whatever

I heard on the radio

Not long ago

Love Sick

He is my salt

He is my salve

He is my vault 

He is my valve 

On the Mend

She was hoping

He would mend

Her broken wing

But all he did

Was break the other one

Cold Case

Her love vanished in a single moment

Plucked out like a file in an archived box

In a dank, dark basement

And left unreturned and forgotten

Forever

And with it

Her home

Mystery Clarity

Suspended

Life inhaled

Anticipation

Plans curtailed

Poised

Tomorrow unveiled

Revelations

In tiny fractions

To keep the mystery

Perpetuated

Synchronicity

Overstated

Signals

Mistranslated

Hallucinations

In pixilations

To keep the clarity

Perpetuated

Home

He weathers her storms

Sandbags her flooding levies

Removes her debris

Assesses the damage

And salvages remains

Full Mood

The joy of melancholy

Recedes like a tide

And the weight of happiness basks in shallow pools

Its colour and purpose exposed 

To a spectator sun

Justified

Smug

And revelling in a will well lubricated

Un-taut

Unlike I

Thick and slow with obstinance 

Stuck

Like a shipwreck

Too damaged to sail

Or even float

When the tide returns

War in Colour

She's collecting colours

To chase the blues away

Chaos Perplexus

She takes the wheel

And veers off the road

Avoiding straights and narrows

Finding long and windy routes

Slowing down then

Speeding up

Crashing and burning

She surrenders

Fenders dented

Destroyed intended

She takes the wheel

And the road veers left

Left stranded

In a dusk-lit field 

Stranded

Empty handed

Body slowing down

Thoughts speeding up

Crashing and burning

She surrenders

Wim Wenders

Destroyed unintended

She takes the wheel

Mesmereyes

Your eyes

Are a patch

Of Van Gough skies

Forced Entry

You picked my lock

You never had the key

I am ajar

Forced entry

No key required

Not even 

The right one

The Pity Pit

Hold on

I'm not quite done

Fist and jaw 

Take a double shot of clench

Yeah why not?

Hold the ice

Then we'll set off

I'm tired of quiet 

Cheers to tears big fears!

A quick swig and a dig

I'm-a-burying this pit

And you with it!

The Longest Now

Don't ask her

To muster

More than breath

For air is all she now requires 

Not love, nor laughter, nor pleasure

Of the body or the mind

But to exist

Only to exist

The Torture of Time

I remember

Course words well lubricated

Clumsily fired well aimed

Undeserved well received

I remember

Truths tossed cloaked in humour

Caught and treasured nonetheless 

Lips parting impending declarations,

caught by the ankles

Eyes have nowhere to hide

I remember

The unsaid

Pauses long and thick with desire

The honey air

Your hair

And now, I barter days for surrender

But time is a sadist and love is his muse

Battles

She peels away the tea-stained print

That shields her eyes from the scary outside

There may be a place for her yet

But she needs to dress accordingly

First she insulates her heart with wads of wool

And pads her ears

A hat and shades ensure identity fades

Now she is ready

For the quiet battle

And no one will flinch

When her canons are fired

Stains

In the black heat

Ice cubes crack and tumble from a tray

Skimming across the floor

Hiding beneath the refrigerator 

No attempt to retrieve

Forgotten 

A tepid puddle

Waiting in the dark

Quenching cockroaches 

Observing your daily routine

Quivering to an intermittent drone

Life is brief

But the stain

Remains

Crazy

So yeah

Maybe I am crazy

There's a place for misfits like me

It's everywhere you're not

And no place in particular

Where everything is nameless

And nothing is counted

Not the hours

Nor the coins

And no one is welcome

Except the wind

My Everest

So here we are

Again

In that place

Where familiar questions

Are left unanswered

And every notch and foothold

Carved into my vertiginous wall

Brings you no closer

To any ledge of reprieve

And what dilemma do you now face?

My dear, pathetic and lost

Do you keep climbing?

Or do you let go?

Perhaps we can do both

Poached Heart

You poached my wild heart

Watched it quiver on the plate

Contained in a fragile membrane

Gently cradled in your delicate hand
Ruptured by your silence

Masked Up

I shuffle away from their peals of approval

Drawing pleasure in drawing the blinds

Silencing joy in silencing the phone

Extinguishing delight in extinguishing the light

Indistinguishable 

Me

Barely

Recognisable 

But they'll remember my face

When I put on my mask

The one with the sad eyes

That made them laugh

Love & Patience

You're allowed to love me

What's holding you back?

They say love knows no boundaries

And I've pulled down mine

The obstacles are gone

No walls to climb

Except your own

Come on, take a peek

Unexplored fields await

And I wait amid the daisies

As long as the sun shines

I will wait until your eyes find mine

Once more and then

You will never lose me again

Losing Me

I've been spinning

Blindfolded

With hands on ears

Humming

I'm tripping and drowning

Out the noise

In my head

Oh the things they said

Below the belt

And off the cuff

Now roll up your sleeves

I'm-a-punching baggage

With the bruises to prove it

So you Think you can Dance

Emerging from the mist

Green blobs on browns sticks

Become trees

And the bird songs 

From the album called Life in Perfect Harmony

Drown out foreign voices

That chant against its rhythm 

And force me to dance to my own

While clumsily apologising

Every time 

I step on my toes

Leg-less Elevan

One-a-pill

Daffodil

Two-a-pill 

Three

Four-a-pill

Crazy still

Heaven help me

Five-a-pill

Time to kill

What a thrill

Seven

Eight-a-pill

All down hill

Heart be still

Eleven

Old Face New

Sometimes

You surprise me

Like an old dress

Hanging forgotten

Then rediscovered

And coincidentally

Current once more

But unlike the dress

I've worn you every day

Accustomed 

Rushing past mirrors

Never pausing to admire

Your stripes

And how lovely they are

Rattlin' & Rollin'

In her head the rattlin'

Senseless thoughts a-prattlin' 

And on her face the grapplin'

Smiles and tears a-battlin'

Every day the tacklin'

Her beaten body cracklin'

But don't you start a-dabblin'

For a pale horse she'll be saddlin'

Friend and Foe

The wind lead her here

To face familiar fear

It blows from behind 

Ushering her mind

She puts up a fight

But the wind's always right

It whispers console,

"Let me take control"

She surrenders her will

But fear remains still

Coiled like a vine

On her wit it will dine

"Trust in my reason"

Howls the wind without season

And off they flew

Into the fearless blue

Cured not Cured

Her heart has cured

A piece of pork

Fired

A clay pot

Set

Cold gelatine

Proved

A rising loaf

Turned

An oak leg

Irreversible