Where I would be

A poem for dverse before I fall asleep.

Where I would be

Above a blue sea, glitter-struck
and pine-scented, heat trilling with cicada wings,
thyme and history trod beneath our feet,

or above a green sea, among endless hills
of unreal green and purple at sunset,
always the tang of rain in the wind,

in a city street, cafés, indifference
of passers-by and monuments,
roofs slate-grey as pigeons,

or here, in this stove-ticking, dog-dreaming
silence, windows shuttered against rain
and wind, spring flowers-in-waiting.

Here or there, then as now, the place
is in the heart, the hand, the warmth
of sleeping breath, wherever you are.