Garden
A garden has a lot to teach
When in my life I overreach,
Reminding me to find the place
Beneath my feet, where earth’s embrace
Will give me all I ever need
To reap the love I sewed from seed,
For though life’s secrets will unfold
And I must wander till I’m old
It is a garden filled with flowers
Where I will spend my happiest hours.
Train
I love train journeys
Sitting with perfect strangers
Drinking cold coffee.
The book in my bag
is dull in comparison:
all life is right here –
Held tight in packed bags,
contained anticipation:
quietly ready.
Boots
Heber sits down on the dusty driveway.
He unties the double knot, loosens his right boot and takes it off.
His woollen sock has a hole at the toe
And another, larger one, at the heel.
Heber tugs at the string on the other boot.
It is stuck, fast. With mighty will, he breaks the string, and removes the second boot.
Heber takes the broken string in his old fingers
And mends it with a knot his father taught him.
Then, he takes the other boot and ties it to its shabby brother
He pulls himself up to stand upon the dusty driveway, in his woollen socks, boots in hand
And looks up.
Heber looks up at the great tree branches
Still leafless, after a keen winter.
He looks up at the pale grey sky edged by impending weather
Heber learned to throw, as a lad, long long ago, at school
As he raises his arm, a memory of winning crosses his lips and he smiles.
So Heber has his arm raised, then swings it far back, and up again,
The weight of his two old boots lending momentum
Up, the boots fly, high into the tree.
Heber looks till his neck begins to ache.
He looks up at his boots, swinging from the great tree,
And he looks at all the other boots, strings tied and paired, swinging in the tree.
Heber has a thought, chuckles, and walks
Noting the sharpness of pebbles in woollen socks, on the dusty driveway.
Alice
Alice drank the bottle dry
Her life shifted
She craved entertainment
Following an impossible rabbit.
Her life shifted
The garden was beautiful for a time
But getting out was a problem
And overeating overcompensated.
She craved entertainment
But was swept away in a pool of tears
People plied her with reasoning
Which made no sense to Alice.
Following an impossible rabbit
Alice joined a tea drinking forum
And met many false friends
Narrowly avoiding heartbreak.
Running Out
Gas is running out. Coal is
running out. Patience is exhausted.
Sage is just an antiquated word,
and thyme moves on inexoriably.
When beauty becomes the name of a blurred remembering
Beyond the helping hand of hearing aids and spectacles
I will run out into the street like a lost toddler
Screaming to be reconnected.
Mattress ditty (sung to a tune that fits snuggly)
We have a new matteress in our house
It’s six feet long, and widee
No hope of us ever amoving it cuz
It’s made of lead insidee
Delivery men in a terrible rush
Have dumped it in the doorway
We cunna get past and it dussena push
We’ll have to sleep in the hallway!
Left over
Left over from the grand affair
She hangs around the empty plates
Hidden in makeup and glossy hair
Left over from the grand affair
Pretending that she doesn’t care
Waiting while the fear abates
Left over from the grand affair
She hangs around the empty plates.
Gym
To live completely is akin
to building muscles in a gym
Every lift, bend, stretch and pull
makes us feel incredible.
And when we’re tired and ache to rest
we know that we have worked our best
and quietly sit and watch our young
arrive, warm up and carry on.
Coming Home
Often living souls will stray
Sometimes they will tip and sway
But as the tide returns each day
Soon they will come home.
.
Where do catlike spirits fly
Which toil would hold and stultify?
They’re hunting free, but by and by
Soon they will come home.
.
Forget the knots of doubt that bind
us to the clock, uncloak the mind,
reach far beyond, and unconfined
we’ll welcome our souls home.
