On the Shelf

Ranked together alongside,
each with our own lid, we stand
in China memories.
Yours generous as the sweep of its body:
water and willow.
Mine contrives its geometry
in the rice-grain pattern.

Afterwards the pressure of your shoulder
stops my mouth; and into a fold of silence
seconds fall, passing
with thoughts but a heart's pound away.

Numbering the years - thirteen
closes in a just coping Advent.
Bound by ropes of laughter,
I track the lines,
walk the long straight edge of evening:
from a tumbling of shadows
to the smell of you in moonlight.

^

Biography

A Brummie by birth, I did much of my growing up on the Isle of Wight. Returning to Birmingham to study I found many diversions, including punk music & politics. Later, I began again as a student; and have been gainfully employed in radiography for the past 10 years. I resumed writing poems in the mid 1990's, after a long hiatus. No print appearances worth mentioning, but some other poems - with commentary - may be found at http://the.bonfire.users.btopenworld.com/poems.htm. When not at work, I'm mostly at home in Portsmouth enjoying the company of wife, son, daughter, six trees and two guinea pigs. The cat died.