never ‘new’

never ‘new’

tyrants
and pretenders
the kites of opinion
the wise men and
women of every
peddled hatred
every blindness
sleepwalking us
for centuries
a new year
without them
‘new’ indeed
i’d drink to that
if drinking
helped

31 december 2017

house of ‘fab’

house of ‘fab’*
to Paul McCartney at Mt. Smart

when
was a boy
who swam out of
dreams every
morning
who couldn’t swim
who played so hard
in the dusk and ate
like a dinosaur,
one night
i first heard you
in our kitchen
on the old black bakelite
radio, ‘can’t buy me love’,
the boom-bam stride
of your bass your voice

blackbird fall

blackbird fall
glendowie 2016

blundering man wire from pole to pole

blundering
man wire
pulled across
the air from
pole to pole
brought you down
i found you
beak open
breathing loud
before any ton
of tyre did
carried you in
my hands
how fine the
summer fragrance