WINTER

We did not realise the joke that Confucious had sent us
On that autumn day in Perpetuity

The circling globe had stopped
You were messing around
With sandwiches
I was scowling, screwing up my corduroy coat

The small tattoos on your hand,
The weak sun on your purply pink skin
Making preparations for the Nostalgia Machine
Where we will now live

We had a dot of nothing
And spun it out like kittens
Any piece of wool could be our starting point
I chose an empty city bar
And hours, years later
was still there

I love the early morning
A glow I know
I roam
Others call out
"these buildings will outlive us,
sly and stationary as they are
we need a manic man with a bowling ball to chase down immortality.
The rubble is where it’s at baby.
It’s where we sprung from and ...
where we're headed to..."

The draping curtain of melancholy
Kept me in the dark all winter
Until a bare branch,
A witches etching in the sky
Led me out to a garden
To find what my instincts already knew

A daffodil will tell you that and more
If you visit it every three days

Where are you this Winter?
Is it you behind the torch in this nature park?
There’s not much left you know
They said it was too cold for the lions
See the bark on the trees,
knotted like Celtic crosses


Malcolm Hill 1996