28

Gracious Networks
(after Li Ho)

seated on the terrace
as the stars plummet
into the darkening pool

an unidentified figure
sips from a glass
mid-life slips away

migrant birds proclaim
change hibiscus blossoms
bleed into the soil

long neglect lies ahead
but certain words
never quite forgotten

<<<

44

Sport After Steve Paxton

The effort to be sat in her window, writing
As a moon wanes high above an inky B 'n' B
Between her on-screen letters and a rising tide

Is not as great a stress as standing still. Is
Relaxation any less a sport than rowing light
Say, or the musculature that lifts blues to her

Lip? When standing still requires awareness
And attention brought to moment on suspension
Martins animate bare winter trees of memory.

To neglect each leaping moment that seems
To adrenalise much as a near accident might,
Approaches a pedestrian body of forgetting.