As linnet gathers roots and moss
to set them strand by secret
strand
into her bubbling world of love
deep green-worlds under shy young
leaves,
so when I fell in love with you
I hung my hidden dreams with
songs,
I wove them round my waiting
heart.
As linnet broods her speckled eggs
when night winds tease the tapping
thorn
beyond her only world of love
and guards their future with her
blood,
so when you fell in love with me
I pulled around me walls of song,
warm fledgling hopes, hugged
promises...
As linnet finds her nest destroyed
by idle boy or robber crow,
her world fragmented on the grass,
and cannot lift her throat to
sing,
so I, now that you fly from me,
find dead songs tangle in my voice
as plundered memory makes me cry.
(June,
1989)
