Whatever gives us closure
Whatever sets it right
Whatever helps to soothe the fear
Or make it through the night
Whatever little gesture
However small or shy
Is what provokes the beast in you
And pacifies the “Why?”
Whatever covers hunger
When anger slakes our thirst
Whatever makes us wonder
Who came up with it first
Whatever files the edges
Not sanding us too raw
But reinforcing boundaries
Well-tested from before
Whatever is an answer
Whatever doesn’t hurt
Whatever leaves us calmer
A sprinkling of dirt
Whatever takes you over
With every nasty prod
Until whatever’s left to see’s
Between yourself and sod.
night
Loopy Lune
Loopy Luna shines
Combing sky
Lighting her own face
A Little Number
Before I was born
Just a twinkle
In the universe
Of possibilities
Reflected in eyes
Both bluest grey
And olive green
Did you know me?
Or was the I of me
And mine all one to you?
My seedling promised,
But unplanned
Was a meeting of
Hearts and minds
Foretold in song
To bardic strains
Or merely Cast
Upon the plain and
Simple lines
That sprang and pranced
This two-fold dance
Of fire and ice
Your foreign couplings
Kept apart
By Mother Earth
Who did not dream
Of feelings torn
From the widening
Womb-like walls
And shallow shores
Of an underground
Kingdom
Nuts and Colonels
Carried away
With crowns of pine,
From slender hopes
To careful, caring
Tender traps in
Wadded cotton
Whose snoring sheets
Wedded Pluto’s
Darker dreams to
Persephone’s Oblivion
Before there was me
The watermelon that wanted to be wine
After a day of dreaming
Exotic visions
Of cool, popular appeal
Thoughts fomenting
In the summer heat
Grew so excited
Reaching for the stars
Through the kitchen window
Tore convention asunder
Sides split
Spilling ambition in
Sticky streaks across the counter
Down the cabinets
And pooling resources
In a puddle on the tiles
Now what?
Momentarily floored
Smiling with
Sugary, toothless
Carefree abandon
It fizzed at the moon
While a pale face
Shone through the night
Reflected in a
Domestic waterfall
Of over-ripe
Sweetness
The Night Train
I love to watch the lights flash by
Travelling from town to town
Throughout the inky, velvet night
They lift me when I’m down.
And following their smoky chains
As far as the eye can see
I am quite grateful for their pains
To light the way for me.
A breathing space while waiting
I take a breath, to clear my head
My stomach sings a hungry tune
My eyes are tired, my legs like lead
Freezing here beneath the moon.
I wish I could awake my mind
Some beauty I should love to find,
But closed-up shops
And ticking clocks
Are all the night will offer me.
Katherine Shirley 