Archive for the ‘Places’ Category

2016-08-07 – Ghosts at the fair

Sunday, August 7th, 2016
 
The flutter of wings through an open window,
   the movements of light across the floor.
Our lives, like the shifting shadows
   that haunt the late afternoons
      of the days when we are no more.

These photos, these memories,
   these senses of all that we are.
We hold them against us
   as if they were proof against
      the power of the shifting sand.

My name, my lover, my family, my friend,
   all on the carousel that turns
      and frees them all again.

Meteors and arc-lights, we stand against an end
   that shifts like light and shadows
      and absorbs us all and then....

Every treasured feeling rendered into air
   every cupboard full of memories
      to be opened empty and bare.

The turning wheel of transience
   the scythe that cuts the air
we of momentary consciouness
   are the patterns on the rides
      at an endless entropic fair.

gallagher
Christchurch
07Aug2016

— Copyright 1965-2016 by Dennis Gallagher —

2017-06-27 – Don’s passing

Wednesday, June 28th, 2017
 
The soft comings and goings;
   the sounds of bodies falling;
      the urge to cry.

But who are we to resist
   and who would listen?

We hold each other
   against the pain
knowing someone else now
   has no one to hold.

Colette said that when someone dies
   you think that if you go out
everything will have stopped
   the stores, the cars, everything....

But they all go on
   and then, in your grief,
you know
   just how small any of us are.

Gallagher
27Jun2017
Christchurch

— Copyright 1965-2017 by Dennis Gallagher —

2005-10-22 – Kato’s dream

Wednesday, June 28th, 2017
 
I dreamt of Kato - five years on -
walking by the old house through the rusting autumn leaves
limping with one fore paw especially sore
but good natured and loving to the very end.
 
We were playing - with me hiding and him slowly seeking -
I walked through the leaves by the creek below the house
thinking he would see me, but he was slow
and I made it to my hiding place
but he sensed me then and came direct.
 
I saw him awkwardly trying to come down a slope
and he fell and rolled but stood again
still happy in the search.
 
There was an old man there who greeted Kato
and walked with him to where I stood from my hiding place
and he said I should say hello to "this wonderful dog".
 
I woke then and the loss and the memory
filled my eyes with tears.
 
Kato, Dear Kato - How I loved that dog without reservation
and how good natured and loving he always was in return
I pray I may find him and Misha and Panda on the other side.
 
Five years, and Kato's loss can still make me wake in tears
love is such a beautiful and painful thing.
Be well, beloved Kato.

gallagher
22Oct05
Monroe

— Copyright 1965-2017 by Dennis Gallagher —