I know that drama is your natural home
that’s where we found each other
when we came face to face in ’87
a rain slashed school afternoon trees fighting the charged air
beyond bleak windows
educational school TV wheeled in on a trolley
countdown clock to
your head
it appeared in the dark garden of a TV child at teatime
a child like me
your bent form rose off TV marshland
turning then sloping toward the TV house
the TV windows and
up close on the glass
and black now black
you reared up in my imagination
did you have any idea what you were doing?
those terrible fragments lodging
here there and everywhere
your brown leather crease face
shiny and worn
your propensity for surprise
for slime
a love of black peat and your sticky tar heart
beating soft
and low
I know you followed me home in my
green raincoat and willies
I saw you in the storm strewn park
you came to Brownies on cold pastel nights
you followed me
followed me into relationships
reminded me I was untethered from the whole
what whole I’d ask?
why couldn’t you show me the big picture?
today you’re often in the break room at work – you sit behind the door
you like to remind me that this 60s build has a certain type of root structure
a foot in earth
that’s absolutely nothing to do with concrete and steel foundations
but I’m too tired
and
you’re out there in the audience
more often than I’m comfortable with
and yes
you’ve walked beside me on other continents
teeth chattering
trying to join in with the now
you’re excitable but I know you prefer home turf
and
you’ll pop-up on Twitter tomorrow
you’re nothing if not adaptable
and
next week: back home in the England that was Wales
LlŷnDdu / Lindow / Black Lake
oh!
you uncover the night at midday
too many unexpected revivals
celebratory unburials
you’re turning somewhere in unseen versions of now
in some sort of syncopation of limbs
urgh!
you’re a broken time sequence!
and
you’ll pop-up twice on Twitter tomorrow
I know it
