I do see love

I do see love

It lies in the curve of mother earth

The kiss of a warm breeze

After a light shower

Two bodies sheltered

Beneath a small umbrella

Designed for one

Hot steam rising

As if they were smoking

From the same cigarette.

Some birds fly by,

On such days,

Even a Crow can be exotic.

If this was America

They would be Bluebirds,

Even the words feel romantic.

An Owl spoke to me

A wooden one

Placed there to scare the scavengers

To keep the Cockatoos off the table.

He said it was a thankless

Task

Most do whatever they will

To have their way,

But love is a special kind of madness

Holding the moments together

For as long as they take

To evaporate.

There was nothing I could say

To change his opinion

Even the Parrot in the cage

On the balcony next door

Had a word to say about it

In conversation with the free birds

Perched on his cage.

They looked no different

To the casual observer,

(Once you’ve seen one Rosella)

Just a little less well-fed.

However, he had read Dickens

And knew enough

About pickpockets

To keep an eye on his peanuts.

Nobody knew what to make

Of the wooden Owl

Or the baby elephant

On the balcony two doors down.

Lord knows what he had done to be

Kicked out of the living room

And turned to stone

Perhaps somebody had finally confronted

The truth.

I hoped to do that one day

But the bottle ran dry

As the rain eased.

I drifted into a shallow sleep

Where the answer

To any question

No matter how introspective

Was always on the tip of my tongue.

With love no closer

Than it was

But further away

Than it used to be.

The Owl kept me company

But for the most part,

Kept his own counsel.