Slamming

occasionally I glimpse 
someone I feel that I knew
between the moments of anger
and the door slamming shut

occasionally I glimpse
someone I think that I was
between moments of confusion
and the slamming of my heart

[10 August 2017]

So near

Once 40 seemed so far away
Now 50 seems so near
Every individual breath
A tiptoe on the way to death

[03 June 2020]

Goodnight

I’ll message you now
To wish you restful sleep
I hope you’re not woken
By the mobile phone’s beep

[01 July 2020]

Another day

Open the gates of hell
And set all the demons free
Shine a light back through
See what’s left inside
Another day still alive

[06 August 2021]

The mind won’t surrender

Filling it with information
Filling it with images
Filling it with sensations
Filling it with sounds

It creeps back in
Through the smallest gap

Wanting attention
Wanting the confusion to go
Wanting peace

Offering nothing in return
More suffering

Thoughts that persist

And want to take over

[08 January 2022]

Exhaling

Who is Nadine?

Such a presence on the stage

Both delicate and strong

Wild hair

A flow of anguish and beauty, braided words and images

And silence

She sends me on a journey

Tracking down her writing, across the web

Her words, a sense that she is exhaling when writing

Maybe holding her breath when not

Carrying so much, so many stories

I feel like I know something of her, from the depth of her words

Or somehow, through the reach of her words

Actually, she knows parts of me

How could that be?

[30 June 2022]

The shape of you

If I laid my hands on you

They’d trace your contours

     and your curves

Where your body is soft

     and where it is firm

The texture of your skin

     and your hair

Embedding your shape

     and your fullness

In my fingertips

     and in my palms

Even though we’ve never touched

     Yet

[27 January 2022]