Mussels
I bought mussels
Pickled in a jar
I had a need
To get the sea inside me too
But time and vinegar
Had taken it from them
They were like an old photograph
Of another sea
July: 2007
A Little Sacrament
September sun so gentle
the incense of his pipe smoke
sanctifies the garden
By the crooked greenhouse
his gnarled hands cupped
offer forth ripe tomatoes
September: 2006
Daffodils
Spring’s sunshiny sentinels
season the rosy-fingered dawn
sprinkle happiness along my path
Angle poise your lustrous heads
that I can better catch your joy
make my morning laugh
May: 2007
Tinder
I tried to keep you dry
in my tinderbox-heart.
Tears made damp
the cosseting place
Love-sparks, fragile,
kindled, dwindled.
Sickly fireflies died
too readily.
Did you cherish
The ember of me?
May: 2007
In Puris Naturalibus
In puris naturalibus
I ventured forth one day
And chose to board a trolleybus
That chanced to pass my way
My goodness sir, quo vadis?
The driver did enquire
Is this a kind of madness
Forgetting one’s attire?
Errare est humanum
He smiled as he did say
You’d better take a seat chum
Before I pull away
O tempora!, O mores!
A woman did exclaim
She bid me sit beside her
Her cheeks were all aflame
Virginibus puerisque
She breathed into my ear
Do you not think it risky
And cold this time of year
To venture coram populo
In nothing but a smile?
Will you come round to my place
And tarry for a while?
Well why not? carpe diem!
I said without delay
In flagrante delicto
We’ll while the hours away
If you are bona fide
And compos mentis too
I see no impedementa
To a dalliance with you
Ars longa, vita brevis
Wise men are wont to say
I think this is your stop dear
Let’s alight without delay
We ventured intra muros
To have our wicked way
O diem praeclarum!
Hooray, Hooray, Hooray!
September: 2006
My Mother's Grave
Absently I stand
here on your grave
by and by.
I treelike,
You somewhere
deep
where my roots
should be.
I feel nothing,
numb,
no connection.
Perhaps a little shame
escapes my head
and rushes away
on the biting wind.
September: 2007 |
