best you be
watching out,
no time for demands.
earthly small sinews of hope
sliding through
your little hands.
you’re an oak in the daytime,
petal by night,.
you’re
bedside-table-book shut
with one eye
half open.
stranger things
have come to me
fortune confused
you,
love bit you off
at the head.
you tipped your hat
to the seaman,
claimed falsely to
bad luck.
you must be expecting
a hurricane
to take you
away,
you must be
angry, expecting rain.
you must be flaking
around in the dark,
pontificating your
pain.
stranger things
have come to me
bit of water to
wash your face,
black lines, heavy
and straight,
sunflowers in
the old church,
and you see ‘em
as they are.