IT ISN’T ME:

The early morning sky hangs low
Stampeding monstrous clouds
Into the West
The sky is vast this morning
Gateway to the infinite

Wood fire burning in a plastic boat
Prayer flag
Bicycle
Plant pot
Gnome
Floating homes
Castles
Bedsits
Outsiders peek
Through pinched curtains
Into the lenses of weekenders

Birds honk
Fists in pockets
Wade in shallows along river banks
Grandfathers at outside privies
Ripped newsprint
Hung on string for the wiping
Ritually dipping beaks
Regard us with pity
Shake their heads

As we cast off
Silent
Steer into mid stream
Heading north
Reluctant
Cathedrals
Drop down from the clouds
With open arms
Expectant of our return
Swans rise into the sky
Transform into flying boats
Glance back
Laughing

Only the brave remain
As we approach
Floating in our wake
Cool as steel
Regard our cowardice with disdain

A chill morning bite
Before the first hit of tea
Hot
Black
Alive!
Faces steered into a cutting wind
Feel good
Fading

Sunrise
Black fingers run
Through wild grass
Fast & low from the east
Rises across the fens
Silvering pools
Taunts us with fleeting heat
Through cracks in buffalo herds

Prima ballerinas bob mid stream
Clowns bury heads beneath wings
Conceal new born
In tall grass along river banks
Singing to us
‘hey hey looser’

The cathedrals are elephant
Dinosaurs
Watching us slip in under cover
Returned to civilisation
The gloom of the news
The filth of the daily fear
Quarantined from infection
In green & sky
From paper
And broadcast irradiation

Surrendered
From that place of solitude
Invisible to the naked eye
Behind hedgerows
Across fields
The other side of commonplace
Where no one knew our names
Where even radio waves
Reduced to static

If you see me
Don’t act so surprised
I’m not who I was when we last met
I’m one degree removed
One click away
One less conversation
One less electric communication
I’m travelling
A spec of dust
Perpetual mover
A molecule
Broken from an asteroid
Held inside a sound
Carried on the wind
Across the fens

This
The one you see
It isn’t me

(K)