The Avenue of Mythological Trees

Slowly

Pausing now and then to savour the silence

We walked through the avenue of mythological trees

And looked out on the snow capped rocks

Emerging from the grassy sea

A piano aimlessly played in the distance

Blinded by the sun

Our gaze fell upon the Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval

Your wild saffron skin brushed against me

The shimmering heat enabled us to see more clearly than before

As the birds conspired in the steel trees

And pecked at the liquid finger tips

Or the crumbling tusks of certain animals

But let us not speak

Of the kaleidoscope of dusty perception

Please remove the pivot from my pocket

Sift the evidence

Sweep up the debris of shrunken crystals

And all that remains is beautifully unclear

I thought I glimpsed you on the corner

But perhaps it was just the emotion of the breeze

Or the play of granite shadows

In any event

Where we are now is elsewhere

Behind the clouds

Beyond the lakes

Someplace without the beating of wings or time

Only the lure of the blizzard

And the eyes which can only see that which is hidden

As the marvellous is revealed

In each silken freshly spun raindrop

Where the menaced stones mumble as they sleep

And their dreams escape

Settling on your harmonious ivory shoulders

Another entry in the subversive dictionary of unexpected journeys

A spectrum of meanings which collide at noon

The cruelty of images

The alchemy of words

The amber taste of love

Leavened with vertiginous desire

And the purity of sublime thought

My affinity with the transparent butterfly

At rest between your breasts of fire is complete

As the present reshapes the past and the future

18-20 February 2008