Through these quiet nights

Restlessness twisting me round 

My only escape 

Tiger striped sunset

Zebra ripples on the sea

Lions in the sand

Shedding detritus 

Layers of discarded skins 

Returning to dust 

As the autumn creeps

Slowly into golden leaves

They curl up and die 

Singing in silence.

Keep these petals folded up

Dancing in the dark

Don’t let me grow old

Helpless needy and useless 

Finish me off now 

Meteor showers

Like butterflies fluttering 

Between ancient trees 

White pinpricks twinkle

A milky smear smudged across

The deep dark sky

Black bat wings beating

Between the evening shadows

Sheltered in darkness 

Swallows swooping low

Over the freshly cut grass

Oh to be a bird

The sun is rising

From under thickening clouds

Dripping with red blood 

Under wooly clouds

Giant mountains soundly sleep 

Fire lights your eyes

Once in blue moon eyes

Falling into a deep pool

How will I get out? 

At sundown she burns

Set the match to the tinder 

Watch her eyes explode 

Dandelion seed

Carried where the wind takes me

Ever uprooted 

If the sky faltered 

Or the Earth swallowed me up

Would I fill a void? 

My own questions hang

Like a noose around my neck

Unanswerable 

Every hair is bathed

In golden evening sunlight 

Another day dies

Overgrown willows

Crowding out the river banks

The work of my hands

Summer grass seed swells 

Awaiting autumn’s scatter

We stand together 

Distant jet planes roar

Dividing our lives in two

If I could just walk… 

Can I untangle 

A trillion synapses 

In separate boxes? 

This body will rot

All memories fade away

Will I die alone?