"FALLINGS...FALLINGS...NO FALLINGS PLEASE!"


No sooner has she
mastered the art

of perambulation
than she  

discovers she
can run

and can
achieve this feat.

This she does
with a great glee.

For to run is
fun.

She runs from chair  
to table and back.

Steady...steady
as she goes.

She supremely
confident of her self.


But every now
and then she

sees her belief
waver.

Totters  too much
to the right.

Veers too much
to the left.

Could suffer
perhaps a mishap.

Somehow her voices
puts her back on track.

On an even keel.

"Fallings...fallings..
...no fallings please!"

Her words
her balance.

Then if she ever
feels herself go.

She shouts out
her mantra.

"Fallings...fallings
...no fallings please!"

She now a teenage
long legged blur

of speed showing
me a karate kick.

And somehow I
find I have become

an old man
uneasy on his pegs.

Climb the stair
gingerly step by step

with great trepidation
in case I trip.

A bruised  coccyx
a broken rib

have taught me
to beware the stair.

Ascend or descend
with exaggerated care.

And if I should oooooo
feel myself go


I call out
to my stumbling self

"Fallings...fallings
no fallings please!!!!"

i need to stop
setting myself on fire
to keep you warm.

THE ONLY TRUE RELIGION




by the grace
of your kiss
I enter the door




of this bliss
finding myself
newly created




by you
in the image of
your love




the kindness
of your hands
offering me



the gift
of this
your smile




the only true
religion
I can believe in



your eyes
the only prayer
that I know




your laughter
the only heaven
known to me




your lips
the forever where
my soul enters



to kneel
before
your heart

We were woollen
as the coach pulled up
alongside the C of E school

our swimming provided free
and municipal
so the stung eyes and barked, sodden ideas
were mitigated

at least if we fell
into the rank brown swells nearby
our inevitable drowning
could be offset:

the boy could swim
and was a king at buying the 5p
Highland Toffee from the machine

in the corner of my head
as I’m busy with things
seems I just can’t shed
my hanging broken wings

He'll always be
night sweats in the sheets
broken sleep
the tingling in my feet

He’ll always be
in the swirling autumn leaves
I chase but cannot catch
He’s a rogue, a tease
an itch I cannot scratch

He’ll always be
popping in and out
dancing in the shadows
traveling about
bringing me the lows
that I can’t bang-out

He’ll always be
a cardinal on my windowsill
a blanket of April snow
burying this sweet rose til
I bleed into the snow

hold my hand
so your thumb
can tap that beat
on my wrist
the one my heart
decided to keep