Putting the window back in place

 

Month after month our view is boarded up,

a grotto; we persist in shadows

lit by just electric glare.

Know that outside, unreported

a garden full of fallen leaves is there.

 

Beside his heavy gloves, my friend lays out

the chosen tools: chisel, spud wrench

pliers, plum bob, spirit level

headtorch, hammers (both lump and claw).

And more. Daring me to say what’s missing.

 

We plan our movements, where to plant our feet.

How we’ll take the weight, sidestep torque

on hinges. Then minding corners feel

for the flush of an easy close.

Fix a quadrant stay to set the opening.

 

Watch daylight flood the room at last.

ii. 2026

The Judas Tree

 

Tucked between my opened pages,

a redbud leaf. Crisp as a poppadom, disc-flat

like an ancient map of the earth.

 

What park or garden it came from

I could not tell; nor whether it was plucked or fell.

All that is unremembered now.

 

Held in the gaze of my mind’s eye

gently spreading boughs, like undrawn sidearms, weep

pink blooms direct from dark gouged bark.

 

Its need for water slight, new life

springs from old wood, sap rising unseen year on year

making most of drought resistance.

 

When treachery stalks the streets

remorseless, this canopy is bold, defiant.

Shelter where all may hang their love.

 

i. 2026 

Twelfth night: recipe for the morning after

 i. 2026

 

The work of running water

Returning from the Day of the Dead

So here you are, landed,

brimful of holiday.

Yet buried still – dead weight

among the souvenirs – 

lurks a primal fear, hand-painted,

 

of one day being left alone.

 

It is a drag anchor,

has held you back too long.

 

Be well, I say. Be well.

 

Albeit fierce in its embrace

let anguish slip away.

 

Life’s a descent on scree, mostly.

Planting both feet sideways,

one hand clutches at stony ground

 

the other skyward flails

reaching for direction.

The headlong balance of braking

 

and velocity.

                    Only know

those empty places, with you in them,

shall always bloom.

 

Be well. Be well. Be well.

 

xi. 2025