Layers of Zoe
#12. For Francis.
The shepherd went barefoot
more often than they expected.
He did not raise his voice.
He folded his hands
in ways that made power nervous.
The shoes of the fisherman
were left at the door.
He wore silence like cloth –
not always clean,
but never stiff.
When he walked into
Glitch
If we were war,
we’d call it necessary.
We’d speak of strategy, flags,
lines drawn.
We’d praise discipline,
honour the dead,
forget the fire.
If we were famine,
we’d call it balance –
a long lesson,
a reckoning.
The hungry
must learn.
If we were cancer,
we’
Dream of my Dogs
I dreamed last night of impossible births,
grey feathers shifting to fur,
chirps dancing beneath a strange oak table.
My two – Sig and Doof – lying there,
old eyes glistening with the weight of years,
straining
to give me their young.
Yet only strange half-creatures came.
I whispered to them,
Ghibli’s Patience
She rolls her eyes with restless breath,
warm with wind, sails stretched taut,
fierce and bemused,
tolerant of the creature she bears,
indulgent as she glides.
Her nimble hull hums and skips the waves,
tuned to storms and shifting skies,
to clouds with mischief –
they thrill you,
she only laughs,