With or Without You

Spring Sessions IV 70 x 50 x 1,5 cm acrylic/spray paint on canvas

DESERTION

                                          

                                                    for Oliver

Absconding angel who giveth blood once a month,

adores blue cheese on English muffin, leaves trail

of hairpins and edible bookmarks in the bed sheets,

trace of Chanel. Predictably opaque: hot coal

one second, piece of ice the next. There’s no way back.

It’s hard to believe that there’s another day.

Tomorrow, yesterday. Doesn’t matter. Any day but today.

Funny that you never visited the ruined temple

with its view of the gulf. But there’s no way back.

Poking around outside a wind starts up.

One of those talking winds, always bitching.

Scirocco, Meltemi, Santa Anna, the frigging

Mistral itself. She’s a breeze with a famous name.

And she has blown you off for ever. There’s no way back.

You feel like a figure dissolving in a sand storm.

Light sticking its fingers through the cracks

in your mind, but don’t worry, it’s still there, your mind,

more or less. There’s no way back, the wind says,

and it’s not, I repeat, not another day, though someday it might be.