Everything we ever asked for

The picture is a detail from a painting produced with my son in half term. A case of the process really being more important than the outcome. I love it because of the bold colours. Below is a poem taken from the forthcoming collection of poems with the working title of “It Begins Like This” which is over halfway there. Watch this space, as they say…

Everything we ever asked for
right there in front of our noses
a burnt offering, washed and disposed of like
some used car that has gone beyond viable repair
or some open ended promise that has not been repaid
apart but not a part of that which has gone unfettered, yet
always waiting for a message of some sort, a signal
clear water, open air and no breeze, only special
now that we have spelt it out, replied again
uncertain into the future, up for grabs
and out for the count, cliché after
rotten cliché, entropy and
apostrophe, even
as the crow flies
upwards to
distant
stars.