the barge pulled in to dock                  voices

of those on-board joyful.

the clink of glasses                  a toast to returning

friends             sweet memories          life.

standing outside the situation            

raising my eyes from wet palms        

the agony of calm                    the stillness

of meadows stretched out over deep

contours          like rugs of olive-rusty browns

            and golds and auburn tan

spring is in the air                   cold draught blowing

through the stairwell as i return to

locked doors                a note hanging limp

inside the letter box

            you never called me                it says.

i rattle keys                 lock the world out

            for another night

malbec wine & single malt                  playing with

the poem under lucid carrot glow

                          listening to Tony Bennett

electric fan buzzing like an inflamed porthole                  

warming me from ankle up.

            and i never will         i scribble, sign, slip into an envelope.

a lone farmhouse                     just the outline

through the study window

            standing its ground at dusk