*FEAR

Dear Soul,
heart speaks

dawn here
sandman wasn't kind
thinking of your evenings
in my mornings
the shared coffee
thousands of miles apart

imagined life lived together
the wheelbarrow from the garden
filled with fruits and flowers
and I completing my book
honey sometimes it feels so real we must have lived that before
tears and smiles mingled it was after the chemo, dear

so we spoke about
walking in the woods
picking flowers
or wading on the brooks
feeling the lichen under our feet

autumn leaves
cascades of them
and the blazing colours
of light through the tree canopies
shining into the window

playing the guitar
making it wail
and your fingers hurt

laundry and laughter at balled socks
new shoes for the winter
your much-loved leather jacket
and new jeans
it was a December then

feeding the ducks
and watching them cross the road
burying a friend
and photos of other friends
visiting you at home

losing photographs in a storm when a tree fell on your house
going to the grocers
payday

poems ...yours were cryptic I said
and you thought I wrote better...
I beg to differ
collaborations...star struck lovers as Hero and Leander...
Romeo and Juliet
World War Two soldier
you marched to Batangas

We spoke of me fading away
in your companionable arms
I've a feeling I'm not long for this world...we'll fade together

I laughed then
you're still young, archangel
no answering laughter

you know what
our second book is completed, dear
while you meandered in the lights
I'd like you to read this book too
but you don't have your glasses

there's nothing in the wheelbarrow, though
you left our garden untended

I'm hoping to see you walking up the road
with a smile in your face
and a bounce on your steps

I Fear
tomorrow
the day you left
a year ago