wayward and lost on the streets

of K—, a city I’ll never visit;

and there it was maybe 50 years ago

on some intergalactic mission

a thousand years in the future;

or back here just this morning

in the cold impossible cold,

falling into step beside Shackleton,

whose body beats on through the cold

for as always it is filled

with boats and birds.

18

Side Trips

1.

We travelled to the town of K—

where all the citizens insist on weeping.

No one who visits there can offer comfort.

You see, the schoolbus departed many years ago,

now there are only parents.

2.

I like the cloud at the top of Shingle Road,

the way it makes my feelings settle.

Sheep can still find grass there,

grazing among a thousand stones.

Each stone was once the shadow of a bird.

3.

God lend you strength, says the too eventful day,

soon you will be home among your loved ones,

soon you will know the beauty of the earth.

19

Names

Yes, the waterfall is beautiful.

In days gone by this place was called

Where Jennifer Ate Her Final Meal and Afterwards She Slept.

These days we call it Jingle Bells because, well, you know,

our parents always liked that song.

20

A Really Nice Trip

We went up Pleasant Valley.

After which we came back down to Pleasant Flat.

Then we went all the way out to Pleasant Point.

It was a really nice trip.

21

Letter from the New Place

I sleep in a house that is not my house,

not my roof, not my rafters,

here at the far end

of the twisting tail of a land

where only a bucket of gravel will break my fall.

All morning filling out forms

half listening to the sea that storms

and stamps and stammers

learning to pick grapes and apples

learning to read a hundred useless things –

I want to see that, I want to see this –

all the problems, all the damage.

Did you hear what happened to

our path of corrugated iron across the mud –

blown away I’m sorry,

blown away alas,

once it was your mother’s roof.

Now I walk the long way round

to see the man who says

Are you happy

Are you happy with your house

Are you pregnant once again?

Old words, new words,

a few moments of understanding,

and always quickly lost.22

You belong to the new place

and I belong to the new place

where I believe we will one day miss each other.

Also the old place,

also the old place too –

the sails and the almost sand and water,

all the terrifying winds.

23

Sorrow

I walk around a lot.

I apologise to all and sundry.

I look for pleasure in my mind.

Away with sorrow!

I write this on a page.

I call it out to passers-by.

Repeat a thought a thousand times

and it will live forever.

The god stands behind me

and coughs politely.

You never see him