We’re still holding on

To our hopeful summer days

They may yet return

Have I lost my mind?

Am I so deeply entwined

I have become blind?

Stark lines intersect

Breaking up a steely sky

Dark shapes intertwine

We hate each other

Because we all hate ourselves

Rainfall deepens ruts

Why should lines be straight?

Why must corners set a square?

Always be funky

Once the mud is slung

And stuck firmly to my face

Time to make it shine

Despite the wild wind

That roars and ravishes me

I’m still holding on

Next spring’s confetti

Already bound up in these

Tightly twisted buds

Curled up in our nests

Listen to the storm berate

Home is a safe place

With a cloud fogged mind

My aching empty limbs creak

I succomb to sleep

Thread the thorny eye

Watch the pylons’ lengthy stride

Are the birds just shy?

Lift those weary limbs

Soon the earth will start to turn

Back towards the light

Tongue tied, bramble hide

Divide hills with wires and lines

Created by my eyes

Let light carry you

Beyond all you thought you knew

Into deepest blue

If books contain leaves

Then libraries are huge forests

Filled with story trees

If I shed my leaves

Could I sleep through the winter

And respawn in spring?

Brambles overrun these

Crooked hedgerows, silently

Winter overcomes me

The joy of summer

Worn away by rain and ice

Hollow hearts echo

Is it delusion

To go on trying, without

Success or promise?

Cover me over

Freeze me from the outside in

Can I turn to stone?

Battered, beaten bare

By bracing gales, bent, broken

Bleak branches barren