Lifesaver

He jumped in without thinking,
and a life was saved.
He's never been called "brave" but he is.
Walks everywhere,
A full head of hair,
Cuts his meat with a fork.
And he rescued me with a projector.

Yorkshire men are quiet,
of few words and fewer embraces
but when he burrowed beneath our
house and fathomed a fiver
from my ear, I didn't
even know about fear then.

His mother, father, brother
now daughter
the thought of his strong strong heart
persisting though,
keep on walking,
he has taught me about love.

A walking metaphor,
he told me that the reason for
his slap-dashery
was so she didn't slip back
under the net again. And in fact,
he is that river he leapt into.

Half-Whole

I brought you back with all the Christmas presents,
and I intended for it to be
an interruption to me and my routine
but you've sat and accompanied me
through my life, lately.

You do the dishes, pack the bins
and take them out.
You and I have nothing, any longer,
to argue about.

I have never felt more pride. Pride has battered
my care for threads and dust.
In the pale gray light of day, it's still us.
My brother, your sister,
Of course we cling on because we both miss her.

Love infintismal. Call and I'll
listen to you. Always. 

When you went away
to interview for your future, I was scared
you'd bolted.
Tears revolted
from the eyes that have seen you on the sofa
like a well-timed cup of tea.
You - without knowing - have comforted me.

He's a strong, slumbering, generous soul.
He's my brother. The only half that fits my .one half of a whole.

Yellow and Green

I saw you last night.

You wore faded green, an oversized jacket. And you came through

the door of my childhood home as if back from the shops.

I leapt on you. As if I knew, in my sleep, it might

be the last time.

And this was the first time I’ve felt happy in such a long time.  

Golden and feather-soft, your hair against my cheek.

I didn’t feel like crying, but to speak?

That might ruin it.

You looked at me, laughed and said something like “I know, love. I died.”

Such a ridiculous joke,

we chuckled together inside my faraway mind.

Like we were looking back on an old feud, or chatting about

a petty friend. We were above this. It didn’t have us nailed.

Suddenly co-conspirators in the grand mischief and trespass we were doing –

We had stepped over the real-life line to deride silly death.

Fooling everyone!

You lifted me -- this woman-girl -- like a baby.

When you barged through the threshold, the green wooden door,

you barged your clumsy way back to me; the way you used to be.

Not that body, or long absence, or those heavy heavy ashes.

This was not the greying memory of

my mother who thrashed out of my life too soon.

You wore green and the light through the window

meant a late summer evening. I smelled the hose pipe and heard the footsteps on the gravel.

Us in the midst of some glittering dust.

Just the two of us.

 Pale yellow and green;

Those were the pastel shades of my dream.