G. J. Melling /

Four Poems



BORROWED TIME

Dawn. An act
of charity. Enlightened
blunder, over
and above the fall
of beauty.
    Call
of duty will of course
alert the twilight
to its dark
intention,
    mark
attention to the detail
of a day within
an end.


OVERDOSE

After its guile,
the novel's novelty
swears off
its own addiction.
Dope opera.
the acid-tongued
librettist -
each corroded life
a pitted fall
from grace.
Let the fat lady
swing!


CONTINGENCY

Admonished. Instructed
in accepted use
of the domestic
gas oven.

The future
is a dream
that
must be dreamt.

A glimpsed horizon
in that airless
iron box -
a half-baked tale
of foreground
freshly flowered.

The dream
is of a dreaming

full of future.



LOST AND FOUND

(for Lauris Edmond)

We - not love -
get lost, accept
our own and others'
invitation, throw
sickies when love
attends each
mourning register,
never a day's
absence, ever
present, remember
those shining
faces?

Hopeless only
in a silly sort of way,
marry, unmarry, stick
out the tongue
in least effective
places. We lose
love not love
us - a different
matter of timing
all together.