Freeway

for Mary

1

Capturing close in a tangle of thoughts your name,
I hold a diamond.
An undreamed-of find,
lying simply in the hand of my mind.
Blindly I see its light, never the same.

2

Teetering on the edge of fiasco, your words and mine,
like actors floundering in a strange part,
stuck in the shallows – aground in mid-line –
wait for a wind to come and steal their heart.

3

Treading the dust of a city, marvellous grains
spun from the Earth, of asphalt, marble and glass –
seeing ourselves, heir to all human gains
we trudge on through the desert at an impasse.

4

Meeting in a new room, we are taken by surprise.
Half an hour of light talk, two distant goodbyes
catch us in the first moves of ten weeks before.
– But underneath, what a dance is in store!

5

Diamond light . . . a boat bumping still.
Desert.
Dust-wealth.
A dance
taking us back, with unravelling skill.
Venturing out, we love, as if by chance.