gaps and omissions

 

the keyboard of my life has keys enough

to tell a tale to fill a world

with endless physiognomies –

the Irishman says with a flourish

 confident in his power to hold

the crowd of eager listeners

spellbound

 

a petal drops from the flowers

in the rustic earthenware vase

falling in slow-time tablewards

1-2-3-fo – nearly to five

count I, wondering at the power

of things happening all around

 round

 

but I would give it all up, he continues

all? me wonders –

for one glance, one brief moment with

– time suddenly chokes on the enormity

of a simple three-letter word

his “all”

somewhere in the high cedar grove

behind the wall

a crow objects

sandpapering over the cracks

in the moment’s creaky to and fro

– with her, he croons

to gentle approbation

with her

 as if once wasn’t enough

 with h

at which point I fade to oblivion

utterly defeated

by the moment’s turn

turn, tur

 

somewhere now beneath the floorboards

a wee sleekit beastie

 neither tim’rous nor cow’rin

calls me to mind

and breaks the spell of

things half heard, half known

ha' felt 

looking up I finds

my mind atop the church spire

of beauty’s ebb and flow

the tidal waters that neither sun

nor moon quite understand

yet somehow –

        influence

 as indeed they should

sloshing around as only light can

 a squeaky weathervane 

caw – remonstrates my crow

while my keyboard 

 gently  weeps

 

 

0=2