winter morning

the sky's illuminated blue       the vast shadow

of a pigeon before it alights on the ridge over a window

a pink balloon perhaps pursuing a miniature number six

comes bouncing into sight around the corner on the cobbles

the light carving everything into sharp relief

cars passing       in spite of this       the stillness

of dark windows       this is where       keeping vigil

it's possible to pass days in silence       hardly looking out

scraping parchment & starting again       sharpening

feathers to the point of flight       & holding back

preoccupation

what's in this year (though nothing new)       made

in china       the aleatory fall of light

on a crumbling wall       more authentic than the real thing

in uncertain times we turn to interpretations

of the past to avoid the necessity of facing a future

of unknown provenance       the earthquake (7.6

on the richter scale) struck with devastating force

before leaving I check that all the rituals

have been observed       beschwichtigung

der häuslichen götter       take a last look & lock the door

in the nature of

striations crust the livid blue of the proposition

how the hell is the simplest form of the answer

this is the way we came obviating the need

to go back there       strictures line the road

with little bits of paper        that celebratory moment

as we emerge from       & here the narrative falters

resisting its own homogeneity       the geiger counter

begins to crackle as the man on the radio

nears a hot spot in the evacuated zone       he says

he likes local variation in the dialects of birdsong

reconnaissance

this is what we know       all our tracking

syntax revealing build-up in the hills       all

our semantic maps aligned to alchemy       pixel

expansion in the subcutaneous zone       satnav

carefully positioned for the imminent takeaway

(a few stray nouns need reining in)       mis-

understanding rife in the erogenous seats

synchronising clocks for perfect control       for

ease of operation please do not adjust your

cranial space mimetic fingertips skin temperature