A Night Like This

Here, we slow-sail across this lake,
Anchor the moon and spill reflection
On shimmers of her glassy shake,
Float, mesmerise and seek perfection
In the undercurrent of our rower's oar.
A night like this, many do partake,
Yet I will search for more.

Here, time flails in passing shrouds.
Sits askew. The sky sheds pale light
And each star, masked by cloud,
Has shrunk away into its hide
In hope to never reach the shore.
A night like this has little need to fly,
Yet I will search for more.

Here, there are no great noises to seek.
No cricket's quake, no skim of stone
Or sway of breeze to brush the tangled creek.
Out of mind, I have been left alone
With day's now near-forgotten roar.
A night like this would soothe the meek,
Yet I will search for more.

Catherine-Anne

Here, where the bridle gate rusts,
Foot steadied, heel first, we vault
To a field of straw and needle hay,
Become the sweet ascent of descent.

Where the whet of sun-split Junipers
Prepare for soakage, our shadows
Reappear as quickly as they had gone,
I have a nose-tight, mouse-eyed view
Of a fritillary, its dew filled
Exterior all a glimmer, bubble-deep
Spirals conclaved in aquatic mirrors,
With me there, staring back at me,
Ovaled in my own immersion, hung
Out to dry in a flicker-lit stranger —

Where the wonders of flower and seed
Shoulder the soil, push, steady, hold;
Showing a knowing we could not-
To follow the call of nature and sun
In surges of circadian passion.
Streams play esplanade for floating
Leaves and jitters of ripples rise to fall
On the fools gold beneath, gold
I would have as currency, fortunes
Sitting in the simplicity of a shimmer.

And where the swish of a fern toppling
In the breath of a mistral breeze
Is as beautiful as you, Catherine Anne,
And each leaf swoop an untamed Summer
I'd live or dream or imagine until dusk
Takes hold and dims, to Winter.