Page 10

Comma

Across the page, over and between
the letters, a pale comma,
legs unseen, meanders
distracting me from thoughts
of buying the old book.

A strange life – wandering busily
through signs and symbols that can
be neither perceived nor
understood, not knowing when
the page will be turned.

Scaffold

If we want light
there must be dark. To arrive
here we must come from
there.Scaffold Thinking of ourselves
as us means there must be them.

This language of ins
and outs, ups and downs, is a
shaky scaffold of
opposites, paired mutuals
propping each other up, each

meaningless without
the other. If one word goes,
will they all go?
If the scaffold falls, will we
have enough words for thinking?

Each morning

each morning I tap
tap tap at my poems to
hear if they ring true

Breakfast

I want to be eaten by a lion.
I want to end this performance
on a high, all emotions blazing.

Only a short chase, surely,
lion at my heels. The supreme thrill
that undoes a toddler being chased.
Thud of paws on shoulders,
claws ripping down my back,
teeth sinking into neck – foreplay,
but this lover will not hold back.

I will lie pinioned in the present,
transfixed in a last rush of adrenalin,
held supine in boundless here! now!

This ‘me’, this oh-so-special self,
this strutting persona
misappropriated
from the dancing universe
will leave the stage unmasked,
recognised finally as
no more than a lion’s breakfast.

Close

With global concern,
I could build a worryscope
to scan the whole world
each morning for trouble spots,
dangerous situations.

Then fritter the day
in anxiety about
people I can’t help
while suffering sleepless nights
feeling useless, impotent

No, better to see
people, animals and plants
close to me that need
my attention and kindness,
my energy saved for them.

Japanese

Japanese garden.
The Haiku I bury here
will make good compost.