AL PIQUANTE
I miss you
and your belief in fairies
as I, encumbant, peeped out
from under your wing
cheeky in our dance
while you impersonated
Marlon Brando or a Teddy Bear
sauteing kidneys and mushrooms
al piquante, taking nothing for granted
ever mindful of the precarious
and being on a knife edge
with your wry humour and kindness,
nonsenses delivered nonchalanlty
and wisdom in a lift of an eye brow
Then you moved
to the pacific rim ,your breakfast room
over subduction channels
you specialise in geriatric minds
and permeate the psyche of native elders
jostling in their otherworlds of knowing
you joke less in your new world
of spread-wings surrounded by water
stressed, in your ebbings and flows
amidst family and work
still I miss you
and don't know what song
or dance to give so as to melt
the embargo on your time
remember
the tides we missed sailing
to Les Isles Chausee
and our giddy escapes
the scattering of flowers on deck
and an army instructor sucking diesel
from his fuel tank with straws
teaching us how, and choking?
maybe I'm a burr
on your travel these days,
but give us another few years
and we'll be old croneys,
croaking to each other
across the oceans.
Gabriola Island, BC 2004
