Love International

Birds, tea 
Horses, and the sea
You liked cars, we saw stars
These are the things I remember

You travelled, to unravel
She was walking alone
We never got very far
Talking about home

But most of the time
We got on just fine
Wittering under 
the willow tree

What's in the wheelbarrow?

You sailed away...
The 'wrong' way around the world 
What's the right way to unfurl
like a fern?

We waited for you
Back at the farm
Watching The Simpsons 
The glimpses of family

Walls of water in your way
Dreaming machines everyday
Followed by a whale
Around Cape Horn

You gave me a stone frog
And my first sip of cider 
You got lost in Rotorua
I met a penguin and a koala

Finally, severed by the Atlantic,
and by that fateful night.
While you searched for me,
it was already too late.

Then we fell off the mountain.

'This ain't my first rodeo',
you said, playing Roulette 
at the cruise ship casino.
I preferred you in the Rockies,
being a real cowboy

From Yorkshire to Boston
(via Midlands & the ocean)
From scrum-half to a golfer
Cricket bats to baseball caps
Barn owls to red cardinals

From cigar smoke in
the 'Gentleman's Lounge'
To dressing in Drag
at the P-Town carnival
Always full of surprises

Radiation, Cryoablation, Radicalisation

World's End, Massachusetts
You still couldn't bend 
your titanium spine 
A terminator, but mine

You stopped climbing the stairs
To your walk-in closet, while...
the 'far right' were marching
We turned left to Marylou's

CNN blaring, 
how could you bear it? 
The morphine was caring.
The dogs at your feet, lying still

You looked like a ghost 
at the kids' pool party,
Relegated to the shadows
My heart sobbing in the shallows

Or was it the deep end?

Now I can wear your coat
And board a boat, only
to visit you by the lighthouse
But of course you are everywhere

The dust of you settles 
on the ocean floor,
merging with earth, 
and travelling to your tree.

Cup o' tea?
Come see yer Dad
But where was the chat?
(only from the labels and games)
In between the flickers of the candle flame

The flicker of a candle flame
A candle flame
And blow
Now Go