Howard Firkin
With you away and me left here
the clouds feel free to drift and spill
their rain on gardens that aren’t you
I thought today I’d count bird species
I’m up to twelve and that’s without
a single sparrow not a one
I’d like to make an observation:
the lack of sparrows seems to hold me
hold me back or hold me still
The city doesn’t loom, it peers
like Foo above a flat horizon
I never noticed that before
When sunlight flashes on a window
the window of a building or a car
I think you’ve signalled me again
you haven’t though you haven’t sent
a signal from that place you are
to here that place you also are/aren’t
You know the reason no one cries
in public? No one’s got a reason
not a real one not like me
with you away and me left here
and helicopters in the sky
and tears like rotor blades and rain
the clouds feel free to drift and spill
their rain on gardens that aren’t you
I thought today I’d count bird species
I’m up to twelve and that’s without
a single sparrow not a one
I’d like to make an observation:
the lack of sparrows seems to hold me
hold me back or hold me still
The city doesn’t loom, it peers
like Foo above a flat horizon
I never noticed that before
When sunlight flashes on a window
the window of a building or a car
I think you’ve signalled me again
you haven’t though you haven’t sent
a signal from that place you are
to here that place you also are/aren’t
You know the reason no one cries
in public? No one’s got a reason
not a real one not like me
with you away and me left here
and helicopters in the sky
and tears like rotor blades and rain
