suspicious strangers down unlit streets

who dissolve into alleys and doorways

or with a shrug, a half-turn of the head

step behind mirrors, silk handkerchiefs

slide from sleeves, white rabbits appear

to disappear in suspension of disbelief

a child’s laugh echoes the first moment

love begins, before forgiveness matters

as the train slides by a shadow, a thought

that tears the heart from the afternoon’s

blue december light, panics the pigeons

busily picking their way along the track

swarming as pharaoh’s locusts, winged

angels on the brightest rim of the world

K.V. Skene, Oxfordshire