...

I wish the world fell into silence

And darkness drunk up all the strangers. 

We sat on the floor

Smiles tangled

Elbows on knees

With all the left bottles of champagne 

Glasses around us

Queuing to enter our circle of joy

We talked through the night

Melting words

The words of life

 

Magic smoked us until the dawn

Two piles of ash.

 

Smoke twisted around the morning breeze

And took us away over a loch

Still talking 

Words dropping through the mist 

Pebbles dissolving in water.

 

We?

Dispersed with the breeze.

07 Oct 2022

Colours

His death coincided with the first day of my period. I was holding his hand and was sliding my eyes from his frowning forehead to his half open eyes, to his half open mouth, to the grubby collar of his light blue hospital shirt. Then back to the forehead, to the eyes, to the mouth, to the neck. 

The bedsheet under my hip was warm and discoloured by a growing stain of blood.

Then Comes Death

And you realised why I collected pins in the empty jar
The plastic lids in the paper box 
The fragments of the broken mirror in the left pocket of my khaki raincoat.
- It’s cold and wet and grey and you are beautiful.
- Hold my hand in my left pocket. 
  Fingers laced. 
  Tight
  Tighter