The reasons why
hide
& you don’t try to find them.
Blind
instinct guides
& elides through space & time
until
you no longer know
how it is
that you find yourself
in this
dark forest.
Regret
Consequence
The consummation of
sorrow & regret
of impulse & blind intent,
the attempt
to escape
makes the mistake
of believing that things we leave behind
will somehow change
or else disappear completely
when finally we
return:
the
gentle susurration
of bad-faith held
to itself & nothing else,
excuses
running too thin;
the hideous birth
of conjoined twins,
who want only to be loved,
& are as beautiful
as they are ugly,
just like us.
In the sunlight
& then when
I awoke
the morning light made me choke as
I remembered
how the gentle susurration blended
with the birdsong & the light began to
curve like the branches above us
to touch,
briefly,
skin within which poison blends with pollen
& flowers blossom before I pluck them
to place in your hair where
they will wither & die.
The past still lingers in the present,
& refuses to leave with the grace
of living things.
This is what regret means:
never to forget someone
or something;
knowing of all the lives that could have been;
to touch,
briefly,
your skin
for the last time.
Momento from the full moon
For A
Once
I loved someone,
in the same way,
& for the same reason
I love the moon:
you don’t need to see it every day,
to know that you’ll see it again;
you can’t always see it, but
you know it’ll always be there…
…& then
months became years & those years
became the unnoticed mouldering kiss;
a distance turning stale,
old & cold as the
empty bed.
So lonely not knowing how to explain
until too late,
& strange to find how changed
the feeling is when found again;
the pain so far away
just like the Moon.
Constant inconstancy
It isn’t the same, it
can never stay the same.
No grass seeds always ready to
raise their blades again, only
change.
Slow or sudden,
willed or unbidden,
there is only change
& nothing else.
Habit & time,
being & repetition
build an image of difference
& permanence,
but there is only change;
the one constant
dressed as paradox:
there is only change,
change
& nothing else.
Words for Ghosts 