Intense the gaze
With which you inscribe
In your brain
My smile

Loose ends from before
Neatly tied

Older chapters
Closed
Yet the new unravels
The author spins it out
Without control
Losing the plot

A minute passes
One this page
A comma is skipped
Love indifferent without a pause

Summer dresses and lip gloss
Hot pants, sandals, shades

Drooling dogs on parched porches
Water fights in gardens

Inflatable pools
Playful abandonment

Heady – slow nodding
Wayward wind abiding
In the poppies fields…

The limbs feel heavy
Like the last nite’s drinking
Skin looks edible
This morning

Through lace curtains
Sun filters; through
The sleepy smile
The sprawled under sheets
The toes that peek out
The bum shape followed
To naked back

Too hard it is
To wake up on
Time

Runs out this
Time
For breakfasts
On empty stomachs

You -
Cab. Traffic. Work.

Me -
Waiting for the day to start.

She packed
She wrote a note
She does
She goes

He knows
Its how it is
The taking off
The escape
The falling though the looking glass

He knows
She might return
She might never
Its how it is

The travelling
Through lives
It makes her weary
Her feet grow heavy
Yet she doesnt put out roots

Steps firm on the ground
Dirt track footsteps
He’s seen them
They ask and plead
To not follow
To not call her back

For she might return
She might be gone for good
He knows
Its how it is.

Curled up
Over each other
Escaping blanket
Waiting to sprout wings…

She said “ I want to go on a long drive
With you…”
Her words flow in me, coil up in my belly,
As her wind swept hair touches her face
As her hand rests on my thigh
As we lose time
As we go fast
As we slow up
In traffic like treacle

She said “live with me
Will you…?”
Her words they layer me
As her arms wrap round
As we tuck in – chin on chest
As we watch each other fall asleep
As we breathe fast
As we slow down
In the world of our own…

So you think
The chalk lines smudged
Are the greys of now.

The schooling of
Right and wrong
Slowly erased.

Fish in ponds
Stop dreaming of oceans
And in suits and briefcases
Lie piggy-bank saving kids.

The diet plan
The morning routines
The car, house, pet
Bland.

Like re-ordering
Stationery on desk
Sex, work, groceries.

Life lived out like
Eating microwave dinners.

Taking hits around it
Passing yours on leftwards
You cant help but look
At the licks
Of a dancing fire

Amongst velvet shadows
She slips
Now seen
Now melded into black
Elusive and mysterious
Deep kohl in her eyes

Blood red embers
Your heart beats
With each tremble of breeze

To find in dust a footprint
Sound of anklet and a faraway giggle

Slowly uncoiling
Rope taut now slackens
Slinks over the edges and points

Slowly a lazy shoe-lace
Black and glistening
Coming undone

Slowly but with passion
Delivers a kiss of death

The bloodied mark
A queen’s heart stops
A snake slips away…