THE LITTLE STREET*
Het Straat je by Vermeer, c. 1657-58
It will rain soon, those clouds tell us as much,
no deluge, a passing shower only,
but enough to darken the bricks
a shade or two and to puzzle the nearby
canal. They have been warm to the touch
all morning, the bricks, their ochre reds
absorbing the sun. Think how those shutters
will peel every summer, paint
lifted from the wood, bl...
Wednesday 2nd August 2023 3:24 pm
OUR OTHER LIVES
Deeper than even the wood pigeon’s gloom,
and always arriving just too late,
in light less than a shuttered room,
our other lives still wait.
They wait for all that might have been
had we but turned the other way.
They have looked into the years and seen
the emptiness of their days.
Between the second glance and the first,
though now uncertain of their names,
they gather on...
Tuesday 25th July 2023 5:51 pm
RAPE
After the chemical yellows of noon,
a high tide of brightness
that came as close to blinding us
as any naked flame might have done,
these acres become less vulgar
by degrees. Brassica napus,
rape, or oilseed rape, most Janus-
like of all crops, and here less nuclear
under the cover of clouds. How dark
in there between those rods. Not ten feet
in and you might be lost, o...
Sunday 23rd July 2023 10:05 am
A BLIND PIG*
You would enter silently, no warning bell,
yet reason enough to betray your custom.
If that lack of signage has not made
it plain to you already, this is a hell
of sorts, a trading post with no real trade
in mind. That wood is darker than Birnam.
We can find them still if we care to look,
where all hope was lost, where endeavour
petered out with just cause, or lingered,
as if...
Tuesday 18th July 2023 5:48 pm
A DOLL'S HOUSE
It began innocently enough, a bonsai tree,
a Chinese willow,
a gift – did you know what was coming? – before we…..
It became my sorrow
in a way, though scaled down, one I tended with care,
love even, to keep it alive should you….From there
only a small step to fashion a doll's house
where they might live happily,
two people who looked the very models of us,
and on a shelf a bon...
Saturday 15th July 2023 11:36 am
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