two short poems

RIVER

between its eaten banks a water-band bends gently, slung across
the curve of earth, moulding to the sunken forms and images
with breath withheld, movements hung within a realm
of never-failing liquid rules where plants must bow
and only fish may tease in spare pursuit, below
the tightly strewn reflections, flirting with infinity along
the wrinkled nomad surface, beneath is all
and nowhere
for a lung to voice a wish.

BRIEF ENCOUNTER

on the balcony    out of my clothes    into the night
my eyes    casting    neither wanting
nor expecting    a reply    merely
a last invitation    of sight.

escaping from    the night’s opaque balm    a breeze
the ghost of air    finds me    with a tentative offer
cool    intangible    I accept
consent to carress    with calm.

an enquiring visitor      intimate      hesitant    dry
a tongue of air    licking me    then I step aside
to a room    to a bed    leaving the breath
to slither    away.