Whiskey Winter

Last year was a year of rapid change 

that came and went like crystals hail clouds, 

thundering down and disappearing.
Washing away again into the icy gullet of the sea. 

We found spring sleeping softly in the blossom

“Just promise you won’t leave”, I beg of her,

 But she looks to her watch and then back up at me miffed, 

and as quick as that I realise she has already left. 

There were lazy hazy July days(ies)

Lying in yellow British meadows

 writing love letters in between the book chapters.  

All Future tense and starry eyed. 

A night in August drinking sweet wine,

 clutched under our arms as we walked around the town.
Mocking village folk for missing the sky show

 A universe with a million dying suns. 

And I am Seduced every time I look to the sky. 

But they just slept on and on …

 till a sunset fell to its death on their airy heads 

to kiss their eyelids as they slept . 

 sunflowers started to curl up and die, 

 crumbled to dust on my windowsill.
I was in the garden when I felt it change in the air.
stiffened the most soft-edged of shadows 

So shivered were the bumblebees 

That they packed up their honey stalls for winter.

 And there he was, with his bags thrown down

Autumn, in his maladroitly manor.

I saw then a barely legable letter which read ,
 ‘I swear i can be a second summer’

‘if every leaf is a flower’ he added at the bottom

And regardless, he went on ahead

 Autumn was made for playing old songs

 long walks over seas of crispy golds.

It’s always been a season of nostalgia for me

[Fallen memories calling me home, ]. 

Every night. Beer fogged and dazzling.
Pretending to be in outer space. 

 Do you remember the night we saw that shooting star?

When we were down by the lakes?

As we stopped to admire it you turned to me,

“What could we possibly wish for?” 

we tried to think fast holding the tail end as it passed, 

But nothing came to mind at all.

We got lost in Septembers neons and glow paints, 

We swore to the night that we’d never stop dancing 

we let life in without a fight.
Left it unscathed beside the next morning. 

We watched Austumns cab fly out of the drive.
And  in its smoke someone came over

such a hard, melancholy character, 

Winter strolled out round the corner. 

I’d seen him around on occasion

 sleeping edgily under the trees 

Alas he was back  bedraggled from hibernation

and more venomous than ever.

 Yeah we spat on his bags and ignored his stay

 by holding bonfires in the old forrests
toasting strong hopes to the spring we all loved

(who wouldn’t return our calls.)

we kept it up for as long as we could. 

Howling at the moon, and so on. 

We smoked so much that winter, in your back yard. 

Shivering in nothing but woolly jumpers
  

We glared at the clouds; The mighty vessels and fleets,

 but nothing prolonged its bony branches 

Sipping on mulled wine with Cinnamon scents
Toasted and miserably tucked 

So at last we surrendered to the soggy vapours 

which suffocated our  brains with icicles

 we watched the light leave each others eyes.

And we shouted and screamed and cried.
 

I walked into doorframes-put my books in a box.
craved light bulbs to crunch in my stomach

Where id sit and wait for the fuse to come on

 until sunshine radiated forth

We walked a mile after one festive night

to gaze over the sleeping town 

as the streetlights flickered off, one by one, 

and the stars reflected off the canal.

 We stood there for an eternity,

 hoods up and sleepy eyed, 

hungering for the next steps that would surely emerge 

with the beckoning new years sunrise

And  mother spring defrosted my mouldy soul 

until decaying leaves uncrumpled
they sprung like fireflies bright and strong

 onto the branches of the treetops.

Birds flew out from the lightbulbs

That came to light up within
 Flowers bloomed along the corners of my brain.
And all was well, once again.