Safe, safe in the house.
Locked, locked
by the sun
to the couch.

I thought about freedom
the cold shout
the sharp blue and white
of your height.

I thought of another life
muffled and blurred with fluff
where pain is held in the mouth,
where backs are turned to the south.

Close for a time to your track
I found it bald and bleak.
But the sun shone white as chalk
and I thought my heart would crack.

*

Rachel McAlpine