deceit’s beach
sometimes you wait
that wave is too strong to
well you know
the next one looks fine
you can dare
but its deceit is legend
the sea
it is a cheat
a snake charmer’s bite
in a flash
you are on your back
looking at the sky
or eating sand
then it smiles
forgive me
not
spit hiss
get out
they
lined lined lined lined
out
laid laid laid laid
out
the
children children children children
with their
names names names names
pasted on their
heads heads heads heads
i cannot get that image
out out out out
of my head for they were all
dead dead dead dead
GET OUT OUT
at a loss
i alone
feel the inadequacy
of expressing loss
i feel it
the loss in the inadequacy
brought home
no more
to me
the remote house of old what’s his name
moon tree moon tree this estuary of mine
walking me home alone from brown’s
fag late and too late to sleep
in the writing shed of dreams
the comely words become undone
to be dusted in a breath’s long drag
feet up the chair tilts the blurred distance
the world bangs a door on a cat night
curled in bed of crumpled paper
a long ‘come on now boyo’ calls longingly
home for you my boy
home!
my bloody fag’s gone out
and the moon’s gone in
Lyn
the wind is rising
last night my friend Lyn died
old age fell asleep
listen to the pebbles roar
the seething of salty air
waiting in a car
the genteel terraces wait all day
above the residents only cars
under a midday grey sky
the odd headlight weaving a thought
down one road and up the other
a person appears
a door closes
she walks away
the non-stopping train
the expressed feeling
of an express train speeding
the reeling in of the sea’s seasons
receding as the year’s tree rustles
the leaves on the backdraft
up and down and around
in it’s going going
it is gone
