Wind swept hearts 


Silhouettes 
on a vast empty life-scape
pin points of deepest black
sun stealing
light eating

ever unfulfilled

I was soaring through Flinders Lane
drinking down the  rain
and a dying mans painful
memories of how he was
and why he never will be
again.

You have not called me
my beautiful boy
for so long now

the post it notes of yesterdays
are pasted
peeling
and falling up onto the ceiling

Morning flutters
 in the stiffening breeze
 of times current

a thermal of
cannot stop

carrying us upwards
into the glare
into the future
that wasn't there ten years ago


Silhouettes
on a busy downtown street
cut
scattered and dissipated by
a thousand voices
bursting us asunder
leaving our protestations
swallowed in the thunder
of another pointless
feckless task

ever unrealized

 I was crawling along Burke Street
awash in the crowd
swept along with humanity
as we lurch into the next
phase
the sunset days
we knew would come
but kept running from
non the less

You cannot fill
my beautiful boy
no matter how hard you try

pouring days and scented wine
down my throat
pressing kisses to my cheek
and washing my feet clean

the post it notes of
tomorrow
unwritten
unwilling

evening hangs
heavy in the still
as time stands
and waits for us
then
leaves us behind

Windswept hearts
and a sense of passing

the only things
left 

The coming Storm

His beasts
gather
slavering 
crowding round for the final 
dance

The air in the Austin
is subdued
pressed down by the weight of
pale ghosts
that float above the beds on the ward

Air conditioner hums
dimpling the skin
through thin gowns
that cover nothing
but expose
the bruised flesh
the naked helplessness
the embarrassed whispers
of bodies
bloated with disease
necks puffed up
groins lumpy and distended

Nurses waft by
fluff pillows
log stats
moving amongst the visitors
with careful concern

His beasts
wait 
impatient gaping maws
drool pooling on the scrubbed floors
claws clacking as they circle

The specialist
appears , thin arms and
gawkish hair askew
murmurs words

bone biopsy
elevated cells
chemo
all falls
pattering
a death rain
upon his tired patient

He offers hope where none resides
offers platitudes
to cover his inability
to cure
promises to return
and fades into the pale walls once more

His beasts
sense submission
resistance falters
one hand dangles down
to be licked and tasted

The monitors
buzz
one word
blinking red neon
against the eyes of the gathered

soon 

Sunset Song

The days of sunset songs
we thought
were
long past

the splash of late afternoon
dappling your skin 
in rust shadows 
a stripe of light
running tall fingers
dipped in dust motes
upon your breast  

You speak

portals open
alternative universes
loom 
starscapes beckon
and seduce
in searing
blazing
star death
in boiling suns
and reverent hommage
to utterance
 

I fall
into your voice
a seeker 
a believer
a truth you never released
never gave up on
or sold out 
to the soulless ones

A vibration 
strumming upon
your tongue 
playing the sunset song 
in all its dreadful aching 
desperate perfection 
and I
the echo
the memory of sound
barely heard
whispering  

me
to you













 

 

Vice-Versa #9 @ Poets United

And you never said
nor offered

anything
other than
farewell

The impression of your body
lies sleeping beside me
no warmth or skin
for me to see
simply the
sound of your whispered

follow

And I did
through gray Sundays
scattered
broken
and upended
on the porch

Through scorched
mornings
where the burning
embers of your absence
crested the sunrise
to streak across a discolored sky

There was nothing tangible
no tactile sensation
to lead me to you

Yet
there you are

a suggestion
of who we once were

that unusual couple
as Ray and Jen once called us
with a giggle and a glass of Sav Blanc

Rare gems
glimmering in the diffused
light of late afternoon
slanting beams of each other
carving the porch into
latticed designs
of here now

and gone tomorrow

Connections

A lover

I never had

came to me recently

carried on the vagaries of the internet
she drifted against my picture
and stopped to speak

I do not recognize you
she said

either do I 
 I replied

Then she moved on
sailing to distant memories
on other IP's

leaving me with

a face I thought was mine

and a vague feeling
of unease

Dreams

And all those ghosts
that chase me
round and round my brain

are just the lovers
I never thought
I'd see again 


 

Water

Moon Version 


water waits

patient

sound of splash

lap

upon stones.


Together we remove

skin

bone

question moments past


You told me

water recreates

paints us

in glistening strokes

draws us in

sculpts

liquid clay.


Together

we prepare ourselves

divest

belief systems

and dreams

lives

falling away

in the cool

embrace



You told me

water takes

steals breath

gives serenity

takes time

leaving forever





Original Version 


You told me

the water waits

patient

 the sound

of a splash

wise

the lapping

upon stones.


Together

we remove

ourselves

skin and bone

question and answer

moment and past


You told me

the water recreates

painting us

in glistening strokes

drawing us

in

sculpting

souls

in liquid clay.


Together

we prepare ourselves

divesting

belief systems

and dreams

lives

falling away

in the cool

embrace



You told me

the water takes

stealing breath

giving serenity

taking time

giving forever’s

Together
we wondered
 if it would be quite right
to slake our thirst
on the city skyline

or perhaps
drink in the grit and grime
running in rivers of decay over
my grubby feet and your designer heels

There is a dumpster telling stories to vagrants
snippets of lives and businesses
secreted in the chipped blue painted walls
it spits out stale pizza
and the clues to a murder
with equal ambivalence

The coughing of the street
interrupts and annoys
cars
choking on themselves
trucks
trundling into the earth
moving shaking
making the sound of the street
a deep resonating bass throb

Passersby share nothing
but little bits of the world
Cantonese slipping seamlessly
into the contralto hum of
Italian as converstations come to us
caress us, then move away
to cafe's and cars
to stores with doors agape
begging and luring in
wide open sultry invitation

We settle on rickety wooden seats
made for small bottoms
you look at all the thighs
spilling over the sides

as the coffee arrives
cold
sugary
served with disdain
the pencil thin gay waiter
glances perfunctorarily
at my crotch
force of habit
rather than genuine interest

We become the blur
another splash of colour
thrown against rough brick walls
seeping into the mortar
joining the riot
the cacophony

The skyline dips down
falling into our open mouths

how

deeply deeply

we do drink