for Neill
I lay on a deep land mountain high dreaming around the spaghetti
tonsilled bird awallow
hello on a brassfretted dawn
was a coldlicked clear day
a smoke wisp blue tongue sky
in a hemhigh coat hat combo
say a patchjacket headjazz throwback affair for a hat
shouldering a sky set brick hard
a doorknock studio
on an alley narrow street
a note played till dawn under a lemonade sky
you don’t have to be sick
like his mum brought and he brought to drink
when we lived in a cave
love held sobre steady
sailtaut like a cablecar wire
for the sheer drop
notes like boltcutters
swoopfingered on the loose
from highbrow to low toe
the full jazz
gingering that slackwire
toeing that line link that ear rig
no luck in it
from chance start to at last
out
to occupy the vast reaches of space
I occupy the stars.
31 . 12 . 2021