the afternoon like a fragment
pollen colours the air
in every nose
you grab at mum’s skirt
bare your teeth and beg
for milk
the wind is sweet and rank
always is
the sky a hoarse throat reciting
there is silence after
the hunger in both
your bodies fold
Filed under poetry
You wake in the hour
before dawn, singing a route
through to our autumn room
where we swim
in a humid lake of sleep
each note, more famished
than the last, quickens
my pulse as I kick
from sleep’s shore to reach
you in the tidal dark.
Filed under poetry, Uncategorized
He toddles slowly up the back path
eyeing off the shade of the mulberry tree
where leaves have been raked
into boy-sized mounds:
ageless and dreaming he throws
himself into the litter
whoops and kicks his legs
lusty and loud as any turkey.
Filed under poetry
Once I could tell you what lasts:
stone, the pull and suck of tides
the countless acres of sky.
Now I am less certain.
Things do not stay
where they are put. The days spin
and burn out like stars.
What lasts?
I turn as the sun goes down
toward eyes that shine like small moons
and to all love’s senses I am woken.
There is nothing simpler, nothing more lasting than this.
Filed under poetry
We bathe our son
a prayer for every part
as if washing him with song:
hair the colour of oats
slicked back from his face
and the eyes
knowing my mother calls them
bright as finches:
in them is the completeness
of life and love
words that survive silence.
Filed under poetry
for T.H.E
We’ve moved on
every day a little deeper
to a place where moments
are defined by the love in them
a place where another’s breath
could be my own
the profound breath of prayer
and joy is unpronounceable.
Filed under poetry
Under the pepperina tree
he reaches out with desperate
hands, brings me a fist
of leaves and whips my cheek
to make himself known. The wind
is harassing us: a fierce heat
in her heart. I lift my face to
the sting, to a sky bankrupt
of clouds. There is nothing
to prepare you for the weight
that settles in your chest
the savage promise of this embrace.
Filed under poetry
It is hard to believe that Day 30 is here… it has been the most amazing time in our lives and writing these poems has been a real thrill, so thank you to everyone who has been following. There will no doubt be many more poems inspired by T.H.E. Nunn, but for now, let’s add the finishing touches to this series:
Day 30
fireworks that burst
the dark sky, show
their colours so briefly
our love is more
like Sirius, embering —
fierce until the end
Filed under poetry
let the postman
pass us by —
everyday, look deep
into the mailbox
of his eyes
there is a love
letter, written and
waiting for you
Filed under poetry
there are nights
sleep comes saying:
there is no room
in your body for me
to rest, no time
for my dreams to sit
at the heart’s table
and write poems
and because there is
no sleep, the heart
quickens, waiting for
the white fist of light
at its flank to clench
into another day
Filed under poetry
