Drinking In
 
I am defiant of the waves of my indecision
and others’ manifold abuse.
At last I can stand proud in the lashing rainspray
drinking in abrasions, inspired, lonely and thrilled
glowing with the fatality and magic of eternity
the lengthy splendour of the golds and greens,
red darting birds, and cats that fly by
before I dare to step.

I stand to defy myriad cowering eyes
behind net curtain front rooms;
I pass cars on blocks of wet carpet;
fallen leaves crackle and call to my ear
that no one is alone;
newspaper headline and TV flashes
fall on stony ground where no one watches,
sweet wrappers and dog dirt all washed away,
so empty they turned out to be.
The books of my life, now digested, no more defy me;
the beauty of a moment I can conjure at the strike of a match,
then go on astonished at my wealth of versatility
and natural contempt for mirages ~ drinking in,
drinking in the fluid motion of all the world
asleep and daydreaming.

The next pillar box I will post myself in and I'll sort you out
as the highest example of a friend in need,
a friend with flowing hair, and stumbling motions.
I can slip across the bustling road because I am an oily spirit
who shirks responsibility yet comes through
the most unlikely squeezes.
I am clean in the dirtiest sense of the word, in intention,
and if I let drip my nose and cock a snook,
I’ll always be out of striking range and dive into the park,
where I can make love to a tree and polish the grass
with my venomous saliva tongue.
      (I love trees and proud-to-sway grass.
       Grass say “me” and sway we two, drinking from the
       heavens’ gush and taking our delights imperviously
       in preferred natural substance.)

I could roam forever in this state of mind.
I will never kill nor go to work
with the devil of world manipulation;
I will eat always as the day draws on
and hunger calls and not a scheme;
I will find the level of the sea
and stand and draw wild markings on my cheeks,
basting my very flesh for recognition of the seaspray kiss.
I have wandered all day none the worse for this,
untainted by any of society’s insanity clauses,
unnoticed, save for by the little old lady
who smiled at everyone regardless,
unprotected in statistics,
yet drinking in
and drawing towards the sea of our origins,
edge of the world
a symbol of free space to leap ~

further than ever before