Tinted Steam

Most
Holy
Gravel

I suckle pebbles
As Communion Wafers
Wanting so desperately
To Believe.

Hearing imprint
On fresh crushed
Rock
A Courante of Hawks
Deliriously
Cavort
In Cherubim
Anticipation.
I treat them
As the Children
They are:
“Not today, not today.”

How could
I tell them
That their Dearest
Companion
Is bereft of tomorrows…

The Lowering Sun
Speckles
Our Lake
In Dragonfly
Flickerings
of Prismatic
Bedazzlement…

…like that day at the Tate

Your Sapphire Eyes
Brimming
When you thought
I couldn’t see.
Giddy
In our riches
Of day old bread, flat cheddar,
£2 wine
Tugging at each other

As Toddlers
At Disneyland…

… Such Succulent
Mesmerizing
Cellophane
Impress
Intangible, Tactile
Luminescent
Interminglings
Of
Nature’s
Violence
In Wake of
Human
Violation.

‘Shade and Darkness’
Heartbreak
Of Creator’s
Vendetta

Sfumato ‘Petworth’
Intimations
Of Glistening
Neglect

‘’Snowstorm’ Chiaroscuro
Of Blinding
Ferocity.


We left in the Quiet
Enjoinment
Of Reverential
Prayer Clasp
And the Whispered
Exhalation
Of Freshly Blessed
Smile…
…That remained
Till
Last Breath
Severance.

… Now
Feeling
Your Passage
Suffuse
Without/within
Aloft as
You Beam
In wafts
Of Sunset Kiss.

How you patiently await,
My Love.

As I endure the decades
In granule measure.

Awash
In
Tinted Steam…