Kaleidoscope Picture yourself on a boat on a river With tangerine trees and marmalade skies Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly, A girl with kaleidoscope eyes --John...

      Long shadows Who would have thought my life would be like this at eight o'clock, on a Friday, mid July. Supper for one: two poached eggs, a grilled tomato, leftover fruit salad,...

  Correspondence A friend, depressed.  We argue over the term.  He says he’s functioning; I say one can function, depressed. Probably what counts is that he’s arguing. And another, a new friend...

      Two Heads On the bus, their backs to me, two women, in conversation. One wears a pink head-cloth of glazed cotton, sculpted into stiff satiny petals. A protea, a sunflower, a...

      Patterns of Growth: Patterns of Decay Beneath the weight of stolen love the main branch splinters, & the stranger takes fruit newly in reach.  The bough holds tight.  He...

      February 12 - the day the birds first sing, according to the medieval calendar. For now, they are caught in the dewdrops the spider has hung to dry on the Hills Hoist overnight;...

      Agnostic Afloat You were a good boy, following your parents' advice, never going out in the rain. At the sound of rain you dove under the bed, bawled and shouted, “Come out,...

      Green Fingers Such journeys as we had were something really something else the zip of trees in the train’s panorama our lunches packed with sandwiches and gin as we rushed to...

      Missing You were not the rowan tree, silhouetted on your practice net at the far end of the garden. We children did not occupy a nesting place in forking boughs, experiment with...

      Concordia Voice of a dinner bell, body of a dollhouse. Her ribcage a miniature dining table, seating painted people all smiling in agreement. How quaint! See how the tiny wife...