Birds of Sea

Quelling swell
           licks these soft stones
                    dressed in green feathers
                                     white shawls
                    swallowing my head
                                     in enzyme soup
                                     that digested
                                     mind of gossip
                                     amniotic brine
                                     has melted down my spine
                                     leaving patient heap of dust
                                     awaiting Autumn's deluge.

Shuffling sea
Scatters bristles of the
                    hoarse heron    grunt.
Sponges up the spilt song
                    of a Himalayan tune.

Beneath this cloud of pine shade gnats,
                    mind seeks to latch
                    a thread of unfinished business
                    lowering barbed hooks
                    to snare a knot of misery.

                    But, reeling back,
                    the line unwinds
                    leaving gulls
                    to weave a quilt of sky.

Shingle Beach Sunset

Splash sweet soft
            on bed of stranded bladder wort
            sand ground
            from
            bleached oyster skeleton
            foam climb
            green light arc
            then mouthed in
            rolling wet stripes
                       against gold:
                       the parched arbutus,
            beneath side long
                       smile moon.

            While ferry from Vesuvius
                         crab walks
                         past a peach lagoon.

Fisher's metal muscle boat
            grinds grey streak
            on shifting bronze.


I can lean my jaw
            upon her living shoulder
            listen to her voice
            climb up
            through bone.

Splashing

I.

out eye of sky

smiling brows of gull

canoe's punctuation

             upon

             26 flag trellis

shivering timbres

the brilliant entrance

             of elephants

             fully embellished

             with lace, gold,

             sapphires,

             diamonds in their eyes.

the tip toe hippos

             shrieking

             over quick sand

             flaunting gravity.

eroding the evening

             with your icicle charms

                     your lusty bassoons.

             

beneath swoop crow caravan

             making double u's

as we maneuver our

             yellow tusks

             our porpoise thighs

             dipping our tentacles

             past liquid membrane

             below the aluminium

                     candelabra.

And the moon of the clock tower

             rasps

             circlets of haze

             wherefore

             art

             thou?

II.

Two strings of devil
waver below
Grinch's hovercraft
who now vanished,
        now alights,
        green eyes flashing.

Tiny torches blink open
        shimmer corn,
        shimmer green gold,
        shimmer maple,
        on this life vest lake.

Throats of your cannons
        wax.
        Grandfather's chime.
        Kayakers drift past
        blast mouth

        burn sky
like a great golden toasted
        marshmallow.