temporary lodging

as good a place as any where the book
just falls open mid-sentence to start
here & subvert the order far

from the madding & hardly
a stone standing cities we'd imagined
way off the beaten the word is out

let's follow that as far as it'll take us
to the edge where even the largest continent
crumbles how do we bear this

awakening here where you come from
you told me once before the noise begins
at first light you can hear the lions in the zoo

all over the city bellowing you cried remembering
here at least the windows are watertight
for the time being we can take our chance





threshold

a sogging drawl where the body's
syntax is wiped from the map different elements
compete for the mind contours shift
boundaries I'd no longer want
to negotiate
where can I go
camping out for now between languages
hoping at least for a good night's sleep
& perchance that liminal place of dreaming

an autumnal surrey lane a gospel hall
smelling of damp and old age my mother's in there
with the others they're arranging
the harvest festival & start singing
a hymn a happiness I can't share
at the door looking in looking out

the choices we make the fibs we try
to avoid & at last the mind is clearer
the further away the closer





caravaggio's lesson

how to solve the problem of light falling
from a high angle & all the various conceits
of the dream you know life to be

regardless of where the light falls it falls
where it & you will & if a dream
let life not be a nightmare in centuries to come

you may wish for a dream or some other
reality than what seems killingly palpable





just here for the ride

a place to start from or end up this far
from say the sea the various paths
that have led to this conjunction & here

the versions part one myth's as good
as any other though none allows for difference
they terrify but give you a head start

I am not one of those who named the stars
& imagined them into constellations I do not have
the certainty of a fish a rock a lotus

I'm left with an unreadable sky stories
waiting for the retelling it's what I see
along the way that makes the journey worthwhile





relocation

sharing stories for this time at least
a common thread our minatory arguments
will ensnare us finally as the seesaw of seasons
swings again tilts towards expansion
of all our desires we stand at the window
(across blank fields our light a beacon
deer blink & cough) what I mean to say

waking early in this house the night shifts
haunts accretions bringing home absence

moving on from room to room to get the measure
of this available space & the day approaching
our breath misting time to grasp rearrange
whatever roots have survived the freeze





the telling of

where fiction & let's call it reality
meet the digitalised fact photo finished
as you like it & who could ever tell

it's enhanced & all over the place
futures accounted for image it's
what you pay for keeping up with & it's

virtual (being almost but not
quite (question mark)) about specifities
more than we bargained for of time

place & what we took for granted
explodes in our faces & things are
not what they used to seem or what we thought

the body redefined & all that's in it
& the two-way road is suddenly a multi-
lane motorway & anything goes & does

a sense of self (dis-)engendered forget
strings it's membranes now all the rage
colliding universes scrapping singularities

rubbishing simple binarities we used
to make any sense at all what we need perhaps
when gods & cows & chickens what we're left with

© Catherine Hales 2006