In the paddock’s breath,
two lances tilt toward laughter —
ponies patient as old kings,
crowns of sunlight
slipping
down our brows.
Legend of a Feather’s Loop
Follow the gold path to walk the day from mist to glint —
Feather at dawn, Crow at the fence, Fox in the thistle,
Lantern where the conclave leans close, Hill in the last light,
and the Glint that waits for the hand that knows the way back.
Follow the silver path to retrace the memory —
Glint to Hill, Lantern to Fox, Crow to Feather —
until the first breath of morning closes the circle.
Feather drifts in the paddock mist,
catches on a fence where the crow keeps watch,
slips past thistle and shadow‑fox,
rests by the lantern in the council’s glow —
and somewhere beyond the hill,
a glint waits for the hand that knows the way back.
I. Townhouse Days — Looking Back
In the upper case,
a volume the colour of
late‑harvest light,
its spine breathing
salt and iron.
I keep it ajar —
not for dust,
but so the mapped water
can run beside
my own small channel,
each bend marked
in a hand I almost know.
Through the plaster,
a swell of brass‑warm air —
someone’s breath
caught in a long note,
turning the parlour
to water.
I did not rise,
only let the sound
find its own shelf
between the maps,
where it could lean
against a memory
I had not yet
admitted was mine.
Between the first assent
and the last,
a pressed leaf holds
streets I never walked;
in the hollow
where a page was long gone,
I’ve set a three‑part hinge:
motion, tether,
threshold.
It waits there,
not as ornament,
but as one more
voice in the palimpsest —
leaning into
the window I still
leave unlatched.
Hinge — Platform Light
Between the last stair
and the first step down,
I carry both airs —
brick‑warm and hay‑sweet —
in the same breath.
The train waits,
engine ticking like a clock
that belongs to neither house,
and I stand in its glow,
already partway gone,
already halfway home.
II. Homestead Nights — Looking Forward
The road out of the city
was a long exhale —
brick giving way to hedgerow,
hedgerow to open field.
By dusk, the air
tasted of cut grass and diesel,
and the porch light
was the only star
that didn’t blink.
In the kitchen,
boots left by the door
like commas in a sentence
I’d been writing all term.
Nights here were wide —
crickets stitching the dark,
the wind combing the wheat,
the barn’s slow breath
settling into the rafters.
Come morning,
the rooster’s call
would fold me back
into the farm’s grammar,
but for now
I lay between two lives —
one lit by streetlamps,
one by the moon on tin —
and felt the tracks
still pulsing
under my skin.
.
Looking Back
In the upper case,
a volume the colour of
late‑harvest light,
its spine breathing
salt and iron.
I keep it ajar —
not for dust,
but so the mapped water
can run beside
my own small channel,
each bend marked
in a hand I almost know.
Through the plaster,
a swell of brass‑warm air —
someone’s breath
caught in a long note,
turning the parlour
to water.
I did not rise,
only let the sound
find its own shelf
between the maps,
where it could lean
against a memory
I had not yet
admitted was mine.
Between the first assent
and the last,
a pressed leaf holds
streets I never walked;
in the hollow
where a page was long gone,
I’ve set a three‑part hinge:
motion, tether,
threshold.
It waits there,
not as ornament,
but as one more
voice in the palimpsest —
leaning into
the window I still
leave unlatched.
.
Platform Light
Between the last stair
and the first step down,
I carry both airs —
brick‑warm and hay‑sweet —
in the same breath.
The train waits,
engine ticking like a clock
that belongs to neither house,
and I stand in its glow,
already partway gone,
already halfway home.
.
(Sequel to Townhouse Days)
The road out of the city
was a long exhale —
brick giving way to hedgerow,
hedgerow to open field.
By dusk, the air
tasted of cut grass and diesel,
and the porch light
was the only star
that didn’t blink.
In the kitchen,
boots left by the door
like commas in a sentence
I’d been writing all term.
Nights here were wide —
crickets stitching the dark,
the wind combing the wheat,
the barn’s slow breath
settling into the rafters.
Come morning,
the rooster’s call
would fold me back
into the farm’s grammar,
but for now
I lay between two lives —
one lit by streetlamps,
one by the moon on tin —
and felt the tracks
still pulsing
under my skin.
.
"Stencil on the Pavement Nights"
Under the sodium lamps,
the street writes itself
in chalk and meltwater,
each line gone
before it’s read twice.
I keep moving —
not for warmth,
but so the glass façades
don’t catch me
standing still.
From an upper floor,
a spill of light
and the clink of thin‑stemmed glass
fall into the gutter’s
slow current.
I don’t look up long —
just enough to see
a hand lift,
a mouth shape a toast
I’ll never hear.
Between the hiss of tyres
and the snap of wind
around the corner,
I pocket a scrap
of torn poster:
colour, slogan,
half a face.
It waits there,
not as keepsake,
but as one more
mark in the stencil —
pressed into the wet concrete
before the night
sets hard.
.
"Two Rivers Speak"
Beneath the ice,
I am still moving.
You can’t see it from the bank,
but the push is there —
steady as breath,
older than frost.
Across the sea,
a card you keep in a drawer
still hums when you touch it —
quayside stone,
a smear of light on water,
the ghost‑ink of a name
you once answered to.
We are not the same river,
but we share the pull:
one in your marrow now,
one in your hand like a dare.
Let the postcard be a charm,
but not a tether.
Let the ice be a mirror,
but not a wall.
Your soul is its own current.
Your voice is the thaw.