sePTEMber
wind gluts the day no clearer to me
_______________than the soft sky.
my unease is no thunder that shadows
_______________the blood.
fineness perhaps. blossom stripped
_______from a spring twilight,
_______the glint, almost sound
_______of autumn in the rain
_______reaches the bone as
_______water stills a fallen leaf.
the year swiftens. i glance at winter
___________whose shallow pools
___________held my sleep.
___________whose branches drew
___________the unlit morning.
___________whose streets became
___________a finger tracing the
___________turn of my knuckle
____________________or cheek.
lightning cut the night’s flesh
_______bare to the dry gutters
_______and fury of cloud.
a gale, relentless as mind, breaks the year.
i go no further. the earth bears me
through the avenues i have made.
they return upon___september
Copyright ©1986 Peter Le Baige. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced from my own publication ‘street hung with daylit moon’, Chamaeleon Press
Click on the link above to hear a reading of the poem. The accompanying music is from the track ‘20211130’ from album, ‘2012’ by Japanese composer, Ryuichi Sakamoto. The album, his last, was released on January 17, 2023, two months before his death from cancer.
Ruru ki Te Ruru 