Lekshe's Mistake

A Promise

It came all the way out of words

to show itself

last night

this story,

this old story whose

name you already know

your hands the conduit through which

love moves light

everything that does not respond

is dead or dying

a dream whose

purpose has passed

take it from me

it’s not mine any more

I said your name but waking

it was not so

I was alone and

you were only a promise on Friday

and the darkness though leaving

was slow

Your Past

The candle casts a

soft line of light

against the shoulder

of your bed

I want to be there

to prevent what’s coming

but

it’s too late for that

isn’t it

The bitter words

the small grief

that left through your eyes

arrived in my heart and now I am

there for you,

kissing the wound that is your past

Just This Once

Images arrive without

invitation

fall slowly from the sky

colour

wrapped in ashes

the shadow

caged in the past

was mine

before

I knew to call your

hands for help; why do you allow it

doesn’t it hurt?

all the pieces are moored

in the same memory

the faint pulse of your kindness

keeps me here, gathering

I could never have come here

without you

arms length even so

I feel my child self enfolded

in the wings of

your regret

one full breath allowed

just this once

I accept

I Will Die

I will die before you just

so you can be there, holding my face

as you do now

a hand on either side.

I haven’t time and I know it,

have always known

it will be short,

even as I swallow night after night.

Wait for me, even as I

fall

wait

This body upon which I have written

line after line

will need your steady hands

While I come back to a place where

I was never born, never lived

til you arrived