This season’s colours too
will fade when our secret lives
emerge from the shadows
and peacocks strut once more
and fan their feathers to admiring hens
life leaf flower fruit life
this too
is the way of the world
How my blood warms
to love and the thought
of paradise – a smile
the warm flesh pressed
to mine – a breath unearthed
I turn around the light
in her eyes – streets strewn
with cherry blossom
white chalk mineral words
with which to sing
of such beauty shaped from clay
of nature’s skin and bones
John Lyons