three for m
i. the chandeliers
after thirty years
we finish each other's thoughts.
we'll have the house to ourselves tonight,
I said
we could swing naked from the chandeliers.
there was a pause
maria smiled
we'd have to get them reinforced,
she said.
ii. not weeded
I realise the reason she pushes
is that the idea of doing
as little as I do
terrifies her. the thought of all
that space to wander about in,
untethered.
the mornings an empty beach
cold grey sea rushing in.
the afternoons a garden
watched but not weeded.
evenings spent changing channels
the will to watch ebbing away.
iii. falling together
I awake on impact
the two of us
plummeting from miles up
surrounded by noise
not dream falling
not an impression or sense of falling
but an experience of falling
exhilarating
but then a lack of context
no memory of learning how to do this
I love you
but there's nothing I can do, I say,
we're falling
oh I know, you say,
but at least we're falling together
Steve Shepherd writes poems and takes photographs. He used to make radio programmes, mostly jazz.
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