written in water

a waltz of light

tilts and elides your text

to the ever-ever stream

and the gliding waters’

swoop up your tale

from the deep

your legend rebounds

with self-same code

of a longed-for world

in a plasma of vision

undulant – pending

vowels on silver and blue

surge and splatter to rhyme

carried by the consort

of waves – to where

the sea collides with land

be it carved in sand

be it marked on white

and bound in a shell

for the pearl-diver –

or flicker across a screen –

true text is reborn …

Ashen, July 2009, in remembrance of a friend