Then I went down on a spring morning
with ribbons of mist,
the yellow lamp barely lighting the dim street
out before dawn stray drunks
and the night dregs gravitating home
through the town with the last
of the graveyard shift and early service
passing without greeting,
utility trucks and delivery vans
brightly taking away and bringing in
and I strolled out in the strong
hold of a new quiet, the fastness of a strange
hiatus despite the human noise
the machine rattling,
despite the animal rumbling and squeaking
of a working day
coming and it was odd
the wheel humming on the wire
its circuit of day
and seasonal circle of spring
delivery van, utility truck,
bringing in, taking away,
because my heart hadn’t burst but
lay open wide
in the traffic of the city,
in a pause of no sure meaning,
I listened and heard my love
breathe on a day
then I went through town
trees with deep blue shadows
drinking in the sharp spring sun and
hyacinths blooming
that you are anyone
you are the one
and I was alive in the flood of old young
faces, heavy faces, and hands, hands
that touched a finger to a temple,
to a brow, hands for carrying, carrying
phones, bags, umbrellas,
hands that stroked a cheek,
childrens’ hands like birds,
a fluttering refrain of hands
flickering in a clearing
I held your hands
and your quiet head
alive in a way, looking out
from sea to shore, from light to house,
from the coming desert to the city of man,
from a limitless day to a certain room
where we held together and made love
from the love we made a strange new line
I would trace with a finger or sign
but the eye couldn’t follow
that I am anyone
you are the life
was it the horizon?
then we walked out on a spring evening
of whatever room it was
made everything seem so sure
the sky tied with ribbons of cloud
and the gold light barely warming our light faces
leaving a working day in its human hold,
in its animal noise and machine grace,
away from the circle of gravity
turning hearts home
now strange bones
joined in the deep blue shadows
like lives detailed under
elaborate camouflage of skin
leaves drinking in the sweet spring sun
and hearing the same strong wave
pass along a difficult shoreline
in a pause between breaths
my life
long
friend.
for Norman & Bethan
written May 2013
for the occasion
of their marriage,
Simon Taylor.
