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NEW HIP
1. Deadline
for Alison
She’s terrified.
Wants to garden.
Plant vegetables.
Get chickens and ducks.
Again.
Sort out that bloody badger.
And there’s the novel.
That last chapter still needs doing
because of vegetables,
chickens and ducks
so she stays up all night
putting the finishing touches
because tomorrow
she goes under the knife.
2. Everything's in the Garden
Alison points to
a new rope for roses
- the old Albertine's already out -
new wisteria, clematis,
new irises by the pond
- a damselfly bolts from the blue -
lettuces, broadbeans,
a courgette bank.
A collie, still young
- as young as Alison's flushed cheeks -
follows her round and round the garden
while cats on outside chairs in the sun
lick confidence into shape forever and ever.
3. Sweet Disorder
...cossets her.
Grass let loose unlocks her feet; riskiness
honoured overhead
by an unpruned branch.
Full-on roses, give the come-on
and a blue iris almost hidden
among tall reeds
is like a name on the tip of your tongue:
fragile as ...one and only, ...you,
and I remember when...
The path is overwhelming.
Such a hug
could take her back
to the centre
of anywhere
she's ever known.
And just visible, embedded in mud
and long green blades
is that old stone which marks
she's here.
4. Going Inside
Her head hums with life.
Her fingers itch.
Now for the unknnown.
It's time to put things
down on disk
tap tap tip tap tap.
Some fictions published.
More to do.
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