Thursday 31 October 2013

Poem: 'SNOWFLAKES FALLING ON THE INTERNATIONAL DATELINE'








SNOWFLAKES FALLING 
ON THE INTERNATIONAL 
DATELINE / 
UNDER A LOVER’S MOON (26.5.89) 

and 
Cathy says 
‘you’re so quiet, 
is something wrong?’ 

on TV 
people move 
in mysterious tides 
through Tiananmen Square 

ads 
dislocate 
into each other 

seals shimmer 
across sandpits 
towards the Wash 

and I’m 
screaming inside 

Cathy says 
‘you’re so quiet, 
is something wrong?’

I want to say 
it’s over, finally 
it’s over,         a 
beautiful lover 
is gone and I’m 
sick with pain, 
I can’t staunch the 
pictures in my head 
and I can’t stand 
their tenderness 

but Cathy says 
‘you’re so quiet, 
is something wrong?’ 

while on TV 
people scatter 
like human shrapnel 
through Tiananmen Square 
and seals split waves 
into shimmering ice 

and I say 
‘no, I’m fine, 
just a little 
tired’ 



 Published in:- ‘IRON No.61’ (UK – June 1990)

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