THEY

THEY

they were pretty sure
you were fixed
for all eternity

but I felt
in my bones
you would go
wandering again

your unsettled soul
foreved ramblimg
needing to
fiind the anchor
you could never
be
  nor provide

the logic here
pretty crippling
      and so I pray
our lives
  never
again cross

unlike this time
no more
    such a time

ONE HUNDRED PERCENT

ONE HUNDRED PERCENT

we
   are one hundred
percent proof of
space-time
     curvature

we are that system of
geometry where
parallel lines
run parallel
and
  yet they always meet

and so we saw
ourselves
         heading
toeards each other from
opposite ends
of the galaxy

way way faster
than the speed of light

something to do
with sudden simultaneity
and memory
   of our entanglement

STA R

STA R

could have dreamt
a reality for you

we could have dreamt
a reality
    for each other

but non-event  chirped
                    sick
and sanctimonius
shadow-
spouted
     guff
from his stupid black book

that timing
was terrible nothing
     was possible

and so
   we lived our lives not
realizing we were
waiting for each
other
     found each other

even as
       hearing that
the Universe
now set
     to repeat, geared
forever re-run

northerly and southerly
such
   opposite winds
currents, tides

did
   once tragically contend
now
melt
      in each other’s arms

AM

AM

am a machine
for producing paradoxes
within paradoxes

koan-type questions
such as
what is the afterlife
after
the afterlife?

what recursive equations
find themselves embedded
in the structure
of everything

here I am under a tree
but it is not a tree

with you
but it is not you

but a shape so glowing
pure with love

though
it has to be you
could well be anyone
anyhow anything

nothing
and every single thing

WHEN IT GOT COLD

WHEN IT GOT COLD

when it got
cold, cold, cold

we would watch
Dr Who on television
around the gas fire

we did not know
how far South
we would be
sailing soon

how balmy they
could be
those balmy Indian
ocean white
sand beaches’ nights

but Dr Who too
had places to go, future
times to meet
Daleks
just around the corner
to terrify the life
out of the nation
(thanks to
Mr Nation)

so
frights to be had
shores
to say goodbye too
and hot tea to drink

my sister Sharon
saying nothing but sensing
the two of us
returning in the future
back for a squizz
a reconnoitre
a blessed
peep in
through that exact
window to see
how it was

tree full of bees
by the backdoor and
our nice
imported little fridge
and watching
with Mother and those
short-short, too
short
English Summers send
Springs
and Autumn, Keats’ season
the trees
changing colour

and we
already
selling up
already
on the move

boat sliding out the harbour
together on
the ocean for
goodbye to
all English things

MONICA

MONICA

when you went
to see the doctor
pregnant with
what would be
your first
born

he saw your dazk hair, brown eyes
and made the mistake
of imagining you
one of his
tribe

but you
were no Queen
of the Levant, no Rose
of Sharon,

nor even English Rose
if truth be
told
you were French Viking
whose ancestors conquered,
subjugated
the poor English people
sat on the throne
speaking no English
for over
two hundred years

youngest daughter of z father
who found himself back
in France fighting
for King
and Country still
pretty much a teenager but
fighting
really well

but could we expect any
less of a descendant of Vikings

and before him
those who were murdered
for the steadfast faith
in the religion of Rome

this
part of the package, came free
with everything
hard to
escape what
history has made you, what
is locked into
the secret
of your DNA

and here is a picture
of you at Stalybridge pushing
me and my sister
in a pram over
the Tame River
before it flows
as the great
River Mersey

and here are you old
and frail
waiting in silence to
see what
Heaven
will make of you

Heaven here remembering
only when
you were young and lovely
that dark dark hair
flowing

and the Jewish doctor so
strongly believing
you must
be chosen person
one of God’s
first tribe

first in
something we all say
adoringly