Salt wings

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