birdegg

You sign emails XOXO, A lashing of - affection. I know it means: kiss-hug-kiss-hug. I see you at the computer Tap-tapping, tap-tapping, tap-tap. What seedthoughts planted those symbols? Did you flick them on the screen Like you flick your cigarette ash? Well, I will side-step the cliché. X is stitching, holding tension. O- this is a fish-mouth open For indiscriminate plankton.

You are so like the green sea Of which I often dream. Silence ceases as I surface but you drown me. Your belly is infinite. I look for you. I flash my fin, I keep turning. You do not look for me. I try to swim away. Tears mean nothing here in this eternal salt water. I almost call. With every wave's pull, I fall. I seek a dry island, or a ship with a sail. I have to be away from your silence.

A burn on my knuckle From the oven grill, Slow-healing, Re-opening, Infected. A pleasingly apt wound Which will scar. A new-found fascination With the koi fish In the fountain- Black, white, orange, yellow. I saw one lift Out of the water And heard it flap madly As if to take flight. Amazed, I watched longer, Until my eye caught Sight of a starling On top of the central pillar, Confusing my memory Into a bird-fish image. I watch the fish From deep within my own fish gut. Their colours Seep through the shadowy water Like paint- Their skin slippery and tough, Their form elusive But visceral. Pleasantly strange.