BALANCING ACT
Five years old
she clambered
on one end
the stretched out ruler
of a wooden see-saw
kicking down
small bare feet
Band aid on one toe
strawberry blonde ponytail
bobbering
at every bounce
further, higher
with each swooping breath
‘til midway
stuck
her hands flung skyward
giggling, waiting
for the happy balance
(Acknowledgement to Geoff Goodfellow)
MOUTH OF STONE
(a terzanelle)
Here and there a crack
a network of dread
in that shadowed den dulled flat
I talk loud inside my head
behind a mouth of stone
a network of dread
shout from deep in the bone
lie in wait for the shadow to creep
behind a mouth of stone
I reach for the wall seek
and finally find what isn’t there
lie in wait for the shadow to creep
under the door, then I tear
down the black dog before it leaps
and finally find what isn’t there.
I am a shadow that seeps
here and there a crack
down the black dog before it leaps
in that shadowed den dulled flat
LIGHTHOUSE BAY
Under nigrescent cloud
a suicidal slope streams spume
winds cover hollows guttered by waves
sea sized eyes and star tanned shoulders
confined to a scragged shore
one crack in a grey wall
In this country of water
ships disappear
your cold flashlight
uninvolved
Two kinds of people walk here
those who feel the loneliness
those the loneliness feel
Under darkened cloud
sea bashed rocks stream
foam loop a foot caught silvered
a fuschia toenail flags
this bay of suicides
Under shag strewn cliffs
‘neath a darkening sky
they gravitate
BUTTERFLY
kites fascinated you
coloured wings wet jewels
they flew with the light
the flip of the ocean
performed an incidental clowning
flicked aerostatic acrobatics
you cried out the flavours you could see
in a scouring sea a board detached
bobbed back to the surface
doing a hammer dance
wings trampled in the incandescent foam
you cried out the noises you could feel
away from here cocooned
a bone lattice mind
glitters in the white faced bolts
of electrocuting moonlight
stores in its rafters
the soft long cases of butterfly kites
away from here cocooned
