Ghost

Frosty Road

We all like to think we are alone on that

divergent road amidst the dark trees with

night imminent and only our

fears, hopes, dreams, the

Moon and stars for company but

pull a little at that thread, that

tremulous fabric and we see instead a

superhighway of foot-beaten earth

miles wide with

comfort-stops aplenty and the sense that it

goes on forever.

21st Variation, Canon on the Seventh

I felt tonight as though I could

write the Moon but

Betelgeuse and Rigel

Hyades and Pleiades begged me to

lower my sights and observe the

seldom seen and not the

often written.

Plenish

Averted Vision

When trying to see something faint, a

star say or a nebula, it is best to use those

rod-heavy edges of the eye made for

warning us of peripheral threat

allowing us to escape or

retaliate or see vague and

fugitive splendours but your beauty

first seen from the corner of my eye

instantly demanded the full attention of my

cerebral cortex.

Andromeda

Naked, chained to a rock and

slapped awake by spray,

threatened with molestation by some

sea-monster unenvisaged except in

Japan, all tentacles and

priapic protuberances aimed at her

sea-shrunk orifices, and no idea of a

hero on the horizon, just what

went through her mind?

Under Cassiopeia

I dream sometimes of seeing

someone else’s spaceship amongst the

stars above my house, its

tell-tale amniotic burn unequivocal

unlike the odd unflashing jet that

just seems to evaporate into the

overcrowded air, into the

mad world of my Masters,

under the big W, under

Cassiopeia

ADHD

Some days refuse to sit still like a

hyperactive child leaving you

exhausted, exhilarated,

cursing, cuddling,

wanting it to be over and

never end.

Upgrade

Things break, become

redundant, out-of-date,

upgraded to 2.0 or 2.1 but

where is my update, the

virus protection, the rinsed and

scalded software to make my

hardware whole again?

Nibs

The millennia of murmured words, the

smoke, meat, fruit, fish, people

sometimes offered up, the

agony of knees, the hope and

terror of an answer, the implacable

finalities of faith, the

burdens of belief, the fear of what can

never be known, the

crushing splendour of the

Heavens, the unwilling

acceptance of death—

none of this was wasted for it

sharpened our souls into

nibs of gracile strength with which we can

inscribe words, music, pictures onto our

paper-thin lives.