Somethin' Else

Tucked into your waistband
a postcard from Morecambe
six scenes from townside and countryside

Brushed cotton            on my back
Shoulders shimmy            the beat
goes slow            quarter tempo

Do you remember the picture house in Oxford Street
mystery            your organza dress
and how whatever it was that held the sky together
got ripped open
and the expected deluge was more of a rebirth
a heaviness from ground upwards, breaking
back to back
and at one of the funerals, how you wore my jacket
bodies of dead soup            sunken flesh
dropped earth            on my coffin
became free            from last lines
on pages            of rhythm            of tides
those splashes of sea water in your throat
not stuck in webs            mantraps

I must have            but I don't remember
calmness            of silence
mourned you            frequently
back            to back
never danced            back to back            before
in ether            my ether
claim it            shape it

This time, the separation is hard
Keep in touch            if you can            help me
clear leftovers from winter
memories of memories that are now things

Make a date for June
Come round for solstice
We could share a drink or two



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