The things in quotes are from a song by David Gray--"Now and Always". Good song. Borrowing more than a little glory--was listening to it as I was writing, and couldn't quite resist.
---
the neighbor's chickens hop along the fence,
snatching at the bamboo
I pick through a bowl of lettuce
watching the sun through the leaves
clear and liquid, sinking below
the roof of the shed
"...would that these demons
would let me rest--
the women lie till the day they die."
I lean against the table, and stare at your darkened window
the pale tree rising behind it
(the winds stripped it, a month ago)
through the bare branches, the sparse blue of the sky
some of the lemons have fallen,
we bring them inside, although they're misshapen
nobody has any money.
"the swans like ghosts on the jet black water,
we'll glide like ghosts on the starry water,
--the docks are burning away..."
you--my drifting anchor
how long since you've been here?
do you scent my want, I wonder--
and fear it, forsake this harbor
for where no one is waiting
"you're in my mind, baby, now and always
the road I'm walking might fall away..."
I have idled here so long,
here, between the dirt and sky
behind the wall of leaves
I see dusk roll over the hills
the wires rising and falling across them
and beyond this valley, the burning winter cold
--the mocking futility...
I remember other winters--huddled over the steaming hood
the utter impossibility of one thing, small and warm--
stealing itself from grip of the wind
if I waver, here, in the ebb and flow
of your absence--
I am washed clean by your ghost
