Destiny with her ruined face

turns her gaze towards Bethlehem

where hope was born in the path of a star

and died again in its wake

Dear Dad,

I was never ready to say good bye to you,

my lovely dad.

Whatever good or worthwhile thing 

there is in me

came from you.

You gave so much more

than you got,  

and deserved so much better.

Your love and care was the one constant

in a world that often made no sense to me.

How will I live in the world without you in it.

I hope you are an angel now.

Floating in light,

afloat in love,

breathing deep the sweet heavenly air.    

Our father

 and so it ends, your sojourn here - 

go thou to heaven

for thou art a child of God,

and we have loved you

all the days of our lives 'til now.

Your work is done here

and you have earned your rest.

Fear not the Valley of Shadows,

for I will walk with you.

The dark woman from the North, 

and the woman with two-colour eyes

will accompany us.

We will travel together

to the halls of our fathers,

and we will sing you to sleep,

and lay you to rest -

our most honoured,

sweetest of men.

The Porn Thing

 Here we go a'porning in the middle of the night.

You seem to be unaware of how your door leaks light.

If I opened it and said hello,

would that give you a fright?

How it saddens me to know, your bond 

with truth has been so slight.

Here we go a'porning, the king of porn, the porn king.

I can't believe a single thing you say you are,

or appear to be. You're all a lie

and I begin to see - this

will end in tears for me.

Sweet Heart

The heart is not a puzzle to unravel,

or a calculation to solve. Do not

approach it with an algorithm and a dictionary.

It is a miracle of softness, a mesh

of wildflowers and roses,

a gift in a box of bones and blood.

Captive in your box of bones and blood,

beat, beat, beat, though you may

against the walls, still you remain

as decades pass,

searching for a partner in the dance -

a ticking bomb, a fading song,

so long, so long, so long.

Big Sky

 How blue the sky

to wander in

how free the air to breathe

so warm the sunshine on my skin

so sweet the earth I leave

Days of Quarantine

 We are exploring the connections between numbers:

121 new cases today,

512,701 infected,

50,000 died,

14 days of contagion,

4 weeks of quarantine.

We distance ourselves

from each other,

try to disconnect from the numbers,

prevent them from defining who we are -

from becoming our destiny.

Love

You always longed for it, and here it is -

reward for all the good things
you put out into the world -
beautiful children, tenderly raised,
floors scrubbed clean, smiles through the tears,
shouldering your load and some one else's as well,
uncomplaining through the daily drudge, year after year.
Being kind to people who screw you over
every chance they get -
lie to your face.

They say what you put out there
comes back to you eventually,
they don't tell you
the slow shadow of bruising
it will raise on your skin.

see the cinder man -
he knows where the bones are buried

Bush song

Bellbird is the sound of the bush
clear as air
sun soaked in trees
chime of streams and pools
damp earth, cascade of rock
lace shadows amid fans of light
so bright - while softly dark
Will I find a trail of breadcrumbs
a gingerbread cottage
witch in a furnace
leaves like broken glass
scattered
mouth-watering edges
glinting and crackling
the sharp call,
clangour
of temple bells,
cathedral of song

The Red Fox

See the red fox
bound over snow, light
sets his coat ablaze.

He is stealth among the trees,
through the silent forest,
silky, sleek, sneak.

He has sniffed out the hen house.
Plump chickens nestled among eggs and chicks,
crooning neighbours.

The fox tears the hen house asunder,
chicks and eggs his plunder.
Beware the red fox -
his names is Riven.