houses strung on hill-sides like frozen washing
light clings with a kind of surface tension
trees impossibly bulging refusing to break
clouds busy translating memory to dream
wet priests ringing out their robes
this kingdom is transient
its authorities are false
sun caught like a fish on a spear
slanting away from its thrust
flick of rainbow tail
flakes of light would make sweet eating
darkness an underslung mouth
pale belly flash
before it sudden takes us
sharp from our shell
naked to nacre
pulses
unpodded
windows crash into birds
uprooted wings
scalloped eyelids of incoming tide
bitten roofs under a lowering sky
a hem to be let down
like a young girl lifting her skits
stepping uphill / flashes of white
a herd of rainbows tossing heads & tails
these paints are prey animals / bolts of silk
all restraints are predators / a brave show
white reins sawing at tender mouths
elbows of stiff dark chopping & bridling
playing stone organ pipes / keys of rock & snow
old loves made young / mists with a skeleton / oval frames
of hills on groaning chains of swings / lines touch & spark
sullen & blazing at once / beauty before its marriage of inevitability