fragments

Joseph, Marie, Bryony,
each of the unholy three,
had slept, on separate occasions, with
each of the remaining two -

though not one of the three could know
that this, in point of fact, was so.
Each of their three rooms had grown
to favour one and one alone.

And so it was that Joseph's room
to Bryony would sigh Marie,
but then when Marie came to call
the room said nothing much at all.

.......................................................


When we were in the womb
if we had asked
(had there been someone there to ask)
what is the meaning of this life?

Would we have heard:
to look beyond its shallowness,
food comfort, warmth, security...
A soul is made for love.

Though sounds of love surround you, here
is only loneliness
and distant are the sounds.
Beyond the breaking of the waters lies

a journey, trauma, to a world
that could not be 
more different than
the one you've grown to know.

...................................................

You do not realise when you're small
how everything you do and say,
how everything the VIPs around you do,
how every happening of consequence
goes to build an ark for you - for which
you will be grateful some late day
when being adult falls like rain
to flood the earth, the whole terrain
of what you thought you'd got to know.