Miscellany

          Footsteps

Footsteps

pass me by

Down the empty corridor

Echoed

By the beat

Of my empty heart

     Summer of 71

     4am

           my arm cramped under your body

           your hair tickles my face

           as I brush it away

           your half-awake eyes turn to mine

          Our bodies meet

          and melt in the warmth of each other

          We leave the realities of single-bed sex

          and drown in dreams of love.

          You leave next morning

          knowing perhaps

          that we shall never meet again

          At Christmas

          my once a year greeting

          returns unopened

          "addressee gone away"

         Just in time for my birthday

    New York 2000

        Jet lagged,

        cultureshocked,

        overfed,

        subwayed.

        Walked footless

        in Central Park.

        0-107 in 60 seconds

        floors that is

        at the World Trade Centre.

       The obligatory

       Ashby freeby

       on the Staten Island ferry.

       New sounds

       new smells

       new feel

       new insight

       new taste,

       or lack of it.

       New York.

      

How do I love thee, let me count the ways

How do I love thee, let me count the ways

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

that I can reach, inside you, out of sight,

to the ends of you, in our love plays.

I love the gentle touch that rouses me from rest;

I love thee freely, all shyness put to flight;

I love thee purely, for what we do is right

when, coming together, we find what's best.

I love thee with the passions put to use,

when in your loving arms I feel secure.

I love thee that love you did not refuse

and so ended loneliness once endured.

I love thee when our bodies interlace

and when, away, from you, I see your face.

Reflections on events at the White House

I took John back today

to the White House car park.

Though he missed the significance.

I wanted to tell him

but didn't,

that here the world changed.

I wanted to lay a bouquet

like the memorials at the site of accidents

to where we accidentally collided

and fell into each other

and became one.

Or at least put up a blue plaque:

"Here L** and Pete first melded

into one new being.

That rare creation,

an endangered species.

A single love."

John walked on

oblivious

that the earth he walked on was precious.

Here the snows of the long lonely winter had melted

Here the cold was left behind

and I could move toward the sun.