FIRST OF MAY                           2000




 She talked of her dreams on the steps of the station
‘Ambitious but lazy - a bad combination!’
Her young heart where I yearned to belong
Was open and clear, forever in song  
(Two nights before we had circled the park
Closely beside, ashine in the dark
Her scent and the breeze weaved with the flowers
Heat froze my soul in a perfect half hour)


We climbed to the mount to the stones and the cross
Founded a throne on emerald moss
To the ones gone before we added our names
Bach-inspired travellers, in the book as the same 
(She has some lessons that I need to learn
And I hold the ones to teach in return)
Then downhill she ran through Bohemian woods 
Pearl legs and hair flamed - bewitched sisterhood!


To the subtlest hint, not a springtiming tease
Of a first of May kiss under blossoming trees
We laid along branches, her journal to me
Revealing only what’s needed to see
Covering passages, translating pages
Then a photograph shown like some fantasy
This man cursed the world lost between ages
(Shy beauty in afterglow dream reverie)


While the river flowed on, magic-carpeted field
She sang with the ones who passed on canoes
Leaf by veil, the woman revealed
The friend I’m already fearing to lose.