Dailies

Bone by infant bone
     we live it out in the moment
dragging our conscript dust
     from place to place
each daily numbered
     one rush spliced
into the other
     permitting merely
the briefest foxtrot of recollection
      until in restless nightsleep
the day’s untidy dealings
      are unravelled

The miniature rings she wore
     about her neck
the cold dry sand
     accumulated in the gutter
the rapture of dawn to dusk
     Who heard the pounding sea that day ?
Who saw the sun trace
     its weary arc in the molten sky ?
These are the perennials
     breath and the heartbeat
within the singing cathedral
     the rise and fall of it all
as the moon wanes
     and the years draw on
Whatever dice you cast
     the ciphers are known
and the flesh recalls every fibre
     of flesh it ever touched
in tender admiration
     just as the journey
of every tear you ever cried
     is recorded in the journals
of sorrow and dismay
     every moan ever uttered
consoled or unconsoled

In the flat fields where hops
     rise and fall or where
sheep in unwitting innocence
     graze the land
there is our paradise
     if only we knew
Time is our probation
     our trial and our error
: pale pearls
     will outlive us both
life does not abate
     nor unsated love 
even when it is driven 
     deep into the ground

John Lyons