Jack Oates

I see the sea the sea is me and up above the sea the sky -
the sky is I -
and in between the line unseen.
The sailor's stitch, the traveller's twitch,
...

I had a dream, a simple dream,
‘bout little leaf floating down a stream.
She wound her way past flower and tree
unashamed of her anonymity.
...

Plough on;
over acre, under edge,
scratched by wren twitched thickets -
hawthorns smite and curse;
...

We are all waiting for it:
our swoon of moon in June.
We take our ticket and join the queue;
shuffling, expectant, envious
...

The queen is dead, they said;
the hive discordant,
fractured into counterpoint -
rumours like oil slicks
...

If I could see this through.
If I could flee the corks as they fly,
suddenly suicidal, from bottle necks.
Fizzing deep into the dark abyss, -
...

These memories we harbour
are so fragile;
thin ice opaque
above murky waters.
...

Can I see you now?
Can I?

Here, and then not.
...

Marry me, and then leave.
Take me under the gate,
the arch, the peal.
Take me under the ravens -
...

Where do we go, when the night is done?
When the leaving lights are on
and new flesh inspected?
A baffled pallor the neon corrected;
...

peters on his own she said
peering through the window
at the boy under the tree
...

blue -
I followed you
down reticulated avenues;
past shamans lurking like omens;
...

Warily, then, she reaches the edge;
her trousers rolled in perfect folds.
Her long limbs the pallor of teacups.
Steely sea meets a flinty sky.
...