guitar street

guitar street

“Harlequin with guitar”, print on canvas by Pablo Picasso

the corner of that building
in sun and the awning
of shadow coming down
are the chord of
my guitar

water rippling
on the lake
its strings

people come and go
in front of the guitar
like clouds some with
showers written across
them some in the sun

marriage of ruin foretold

Detail from Paris and Helen by Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825)

Marriage of ruin foretold
The couple on everyone’s lips, Paris 
and Eleni, a reconstruction based 
on what someone, who worked in the 
very cafe, told me they claimed to 
have heard, and what the talking bird 
saw from its cage and still playing 
out in its eye
 
 
    first meeting in the Cafe ‘Sparta’
 
never a dark warmer
a sorrow under
your eyes
 
i offer them
only a smiling
       emptiness
 
expect flame
upon me.
 
 
    second meeting
 
drinking coffee
with you
from each
other’s cup,
the other
diners not
even in
our eye,
as if we
cared...
 
the sharp taste
of your eyes
 
shying away in
laughter
 
at my mean
     grasp.
 
i’ll kill us
both this
way.
 
 
    third meeting
 
body shapes
body
i know
 
i believe
 

christmas table

christmas table
      to June Le Baige

The ‘bright miles’ at Ahipara waiting to carry you…. taken before the Weathercats were even raindrops

at the edge
miles of sea
windless or windy
in the hard sun
or brimming
cave of
the moon

your table
this year
was leaner
than ever
a call at the
door
a couple
of friends
a nephew
and cups of
tea you
struggled
to pour

making slow
progress
with your
walker
across the