They needed to be wet
wings that beat against sea
now heavy
It was, as it would
at the end of the summer
be warm
It would, as it was
be our last
forgiving sky
What overcame us
was salt
gripping
The raw tang
from a bleeding
ocean lip
It
I wrote it
the feather
plucked.
Pop
out it came
once,
all at once
for in the space of a minute
maybe two
I wrote it
Fucked it
Buried it.
It, separate somehow
from its mother
who gave it
birthed
and from whom
it left
The word
was
flume.
You know, flume,
like the water park
flume.
I was staring
there was water
falling off rock
into more water
from a thought
not memory.
Now I’m nervous.
Flume
my flume
wriggles
it needs
out.
I don’t like it
now
help
it here
it
hurts.
-
sharp
inside
me
can’t
inhale.
No more
this will only end
as I know it begins.
I spit bars
I must
It must.
Flume
Here again from memory.
I’d slip down years ago
wet hair childish skin;
a Flume
kept my head in thought,
afloat
I turn, spot the bank
hurl myself upon the dirt
to eat its ridge
hoping the grass
will line
my waterlogged stomach
To be here again,
Flume.
To be young again,
alive.
To be me here,
again.
Throw sand in my eyes
Are you afraid
Are you hurt
Where are you
Stop throwing sand
Into the corners
Of my eyes
You know it
We won’t win
We all do
The lost blood
Should remind us
We’ve been here
Gas and fire
A broken hope
Tunnels, more guns
Will cause vengeance
More hardened voices
The rising youth
Memories of this
Wedge into mind
And hard wire
To mask it
Justify the cause
You crouch down
With your fingers
Held firm together
To gather gold
Death in hand
Your only goal
To mask it
Sand sand sand
Up, away, down
Clouding the sky
You can try
To distract us
Blind our courage
You will not
It must stop
It will end
Care
Can’t save time,
only spend it.
Your currency; care.
Eye mask
so I wouldn’t wake
when the light came.
Water
on the side
clear jug.
I arrive
home
somewhere new.
Green square
Misplaced
on the way here
until, when I arrived
there was no one
The thought
of nodding
giving
‘good morning’
I enter,
green mowed grass
swings and
goalposts
A square
open
today
empty
Bliss.
I’ll walk
it
slow
Yellow
The clenched fist rarely pays somehow it knows to loosen Petals, the yellow type like their sun, round pale and gold lift like fingers release, now open to feel touch soak then pour through hard shafts their green blood Arrival Into June a soft month to be
Red kite
You used to fly them
on a string
you gave to the wind
I’d watch you
Dad
chopping up clouds
You’d let me
under your arms
to hold on
Something
would grow
fastened to you
When we moved here
mum told be about these
big birds, Red kites
Moon eyes
earth brown wings
triangle tails
There are loads
overhead
looking down
I loved that kite
cause I knew
you loved it too
Maybe there was something
for you
at the end of that string
That these Red kites
in the sky
see too
Music
I am it
open
my heart gives
as the warm air
rises, a climb
beyond
bodies
to joy
I am spirit
Notes
strings
open then close
galvanising
flesh on the bone
to jolt
jiggle
feverish happiness
alive
in me
Colours
are colours
I have met
in a dream
only once
a taste
so sweet
everlasting
now
etched
I dance
Love doesn’t say much
days roll
evenings patient with us.
We are vulnerable
that is enough.
I heat half the bbq
salad and cheese and hot tea
the cold is held back
early summer, new air
we breathe.
Give me only this.
Never strip
this stillness
for as long as we sit
I dance