HARVEST

Abating lashing winds and raging

      black misuse

the sun forgives the weeping

      willow.

Flood recedes as

      a disliked rich relation leaves

the Delta

weighed down with gifts

      of fruit and arable soil

the rain will come again.

COÑO (PUSSY SONNET)

–         For Kristy and Kate

             who threw down the gauntlet

                one  Friday evening at the Piccolo Bar.

                                       

                                       

                                       Effective

as phrases à moitié-comprises[1]

poetry to order pushes

nobody’s button.

Too beautiful for this

affected hauteur

provocative and facile

words are impelled by

the gravity between us:

high school French and

phrase-book Spanish

collide and ricochet inadequate.

Thank God

there’s something to be done with

a tongue we all understand ...

---

[1]Fr – “half-understood phrases”.

HAIKU

Caesar falling raised

      the toga over his face.

            None would see his end.

SALOME NEVER REALLY THOUGHT...

Ask me

and for you I’ll burn

the world.

Ask me —

I’ll don the clichés

and outdo Gatsby

for gold-hatted high-

            bouncing love.

                        If you ask

I’ll pull the heavens down

or die trying to lay them

            at your feet —

Desire it and I’d

reach down inside

strangle the poet

dress the corpse as

an accountant.

I’ll be the best friend

the lover or

both; your counsellor

carer; therapist; clown;

your partner; I’ll be

your mirror —

In my

long-gazing appraisals when

you’d know my thoughts —

look — see

yourself reflected then

ask

yourself — who looks back.

Ask

which you you’d be —

ask

what you’d have from me —

and knowing all this

don’t

ask me

to be your heroin.