Tug Dumbly # 41 - Four Bits of Some Whole

Four Bits of Some Whole

1

Somewhere walk the world

all our unbecome selves

a half-done crop of little ghosts

a pale crying child army

we pass through

and our temperature drops

and you think ‘that was me

another me I’ll never be’.

2

She said 'my heart’s a beanbag

people crash into for a while

before getting up and moving on

rested, unscathed

dumb to the dent

they leave behind.

But you,’ she said ‘you I like.

You’ll never fully disappoint me.

You’re like something good

that constantly fails to arrive'.

3

Tightly bound the bloody bud

of my heart

a cupped candle in all these hands

and I have been loved

more than I have loved

and I have been forgiven

more than I have forgiven

and I have been so lucky to know

there’s no healing the whole

of our unknowing.

 4

What is this thing you say you seek?

this shy creature

creeping round the perimeter

this hart nosing blind

this animal gently scrabbling

behind a board

in the dawn kitchen

you get too close

and it stops.

It just stops

like a mouse

like a cricket

like a heart

like a clock

it just stops.

Even the fridge holds its breath

at that floorboard creak …

what is this thing you say you seek?