gavin's woodpile

working out on gavin's woodpile

safe within the harmony of kin

visions begin to crowd my eyes

like a meteor shower in the autumn skies

and the soil beneath me seems to moan

with a sound like the wind through a hollow bone

and my mind fills with figures like lappish runes of power

and log slams on rough-hewn log

and a voice from somewhere scolds a barking dog

i remember a bleak-eyed prisoner

in the stoney mountain life-suspension home

you drink and fight and damage someone

and they throw you away for some years of boredom

one year done and five more to go

no job waiting so no parole

and over and over they tell you that you're nothing

and i toss another log on gavin's woodpile

and wonder at the lamp-warm window's welcome smile

i remember crackling embers

coloured windows shining through the rain

like the coloured slicks on the english river2

death in the marrow and death in the liver

and some government gambler with his mouth full of steak

saying

if you can't eat the fish