La Luna

Look, the sun's falling
It's quite a show, this one
Happens every day but times vary
Check your local guide.

The lights are all hushed now
See how the hill's shivering.
Cold? Anticipation?
Dissolving into shade.

Now look over there, look look!
Fire, fire! Full moon rising
A rock star splits the stage
Rolling the hill, our lives, onward.

You might well wake one night
And feel still her music
But her heart is shrinking -
Check guides for the encore.

Train

Cover me with velvet
Starbursting blackness
Moon from the East
Thundering over me
Fields from the North
Rolling beneath me
I bring fear
I bring love
All strength is within me
I bring dreams
I am all things
The world is within me -

I hold your heart in
My rhythm
You hold my heart in
Your night

Night of stars
Roaring comet
Cloak of fire
Breathing my fire
Into hurtling stillness

Trees against stone
Sharp against sky
Lost behind me
Ever before me
For I
I am the night rider
I will form your dreams with fury
I will bring your journey's end
I will pierce your melting horizons -

The ice of fear down your back will return.

Winter

The city breathes, sunk in itself
Sunk deep in silence, crisp air crackles
Snowy breath turning ashes to crystal
Drops on a blanket, muffled in white.

This early hour, and the city sleeps
To wake in wonder at a changed world
All soft furnishing, carpets and cushions
Soft like down, still like dawn.

Slow, sluggish river, lazy and laggardly
Dragging its feet, it cuts them on ice
A pearl of brilliance as the sun strikes
Cold ray melting colder gem.

A world of light! But the beast still lives
Smog smothering advances on cowering streets
With a ranting yawn its cry envelops
Death throes of this city dream.

The Present

We travelled a long way to find you
From the tropics to the gentler climes.
So small you were! A stuffed toy
Jumping off the shelf in your urge to be noticed
And that snout
Never still.
We brought you squealing
To your new home
Where you lay in lushness
Stunned out of existential horrors
Into a deep trough of luxury -
A pig in mud!
Things changed around you
Shadows on a house
Lengthened, trees crept upwards
Downwards, the hill fell into a creek bed.
And your shadow lengthened
Knee-high the chickens
We scurried with our plans
Which you kindly kept an eye on.
You exist
And your absence would be
A creek draining
The trees falling
A lack in the lushness.
Unthinkable. You grew with all the growth
Our plans became paradise...
"Oh yes, and Hamlet, of course."

The Yacht Race (for Wendy)

Don't mind my dog he said
Ambling along
Beer in hand
And we didn't.
Sox was its name
And it could have done with them
Pointy-toed on the pavement -
Hot - for a minute!
Then shadow, then hot again.
We all stared at dots in the distance.
The last of the racers coming up river.
To spinnaker or not to spinnaker? That
Is the Big Q.
Smacks of desperation he said
(not sure how much he really knew)
He asked me where in the motherland
I thought he meant the mainland
And said my City out loud.
Smiles.
This got us onto the Barmy Army.
From spinnaker to spinner...
The labrador looked
The beer went down
The dots got bigger. I knew
I'd forgotten the sunscreen.
But didn't want to leave
Even to go to the van
My blue sail won!
The siren. The blue sky
River, beer, dog.