Manual

On school trips
chain links run
up museum steps.

First date,
fingers locked
along the footpath.

Electricity passed
by palm
before the kiss.

After the accident
Chianti blooms
through a tea-towel.

Before the grip
of arthritis, her Dad's
bone-crushing shake. 

My first secret; I dive
for the sunken ring
in our honeymoon pool.

Amniotic-wrinkled,
his five digits wrap
my single finger.

Blue-veined skin;
her grip loosening
with the last breath.

The Risen

I've seen flame eat a field,
air warped by heat.

I yell when smoke
spills through the trees.

She runs through ash-snow,
un-pegs damp sheets.

Later by the furrowed rim
my wheels tick and gleam.
 
Charcoal birds unfold,
lift from scorched seams;

lords of the black,
the risen dead, rising.

Burnt Scooter

A scorched frame
tells its story to the alley,
 a 3-D diagram
of melted tyres
and wire,

frittered foam
on naked springs,
lava-runs of rubber,
a reek of char,

this monument
a weld of envy
to theft,
careering ride
to irresistible fire. 

Molecular Journeys

Dad's scent,
ghosting seams
of a wardrobe-
harboured coat.

                      *                        

Rain-bruised lavender,
be-jewelled,
bowed.

                      *                     

Under a pheromone cloud,
a blushing boy and girl.

                      *                     

Warm pumice
of Labrador's nose
rubbed close
to rumours
of bacon.

                      *

A deep engine note rolls past
the window of the home;
he's astride his Triumph
in the Parker-Knoll.

                     

Perfume; the stealthy spell
she left behind.

                      *                

A white leap
into her darkness.
Light beginning
in this end.

 

Prem.

Like that weird March morning in January, 


the birds deceived, deceiving us in turn, 


roots woken and stirred to thirst, you too 


arrived early, to a world unsure

 

if  this was sleep or dream,  fitful in streams

of silver light,  too cold and thin to swim, 


town and country both beginning to believe 


in spring, when twilight came, mantling.