I was looking at this guy in the street

hornyhead turbotand there’s a name for a startwere found to be bisexual withovary tissues in their testesthe males were found congregatedaround a sewage outletbefore graffiti writersand fundamentalist preachersdevelop the implications ofthis newsflashI think I’ll stopright there

Yet they, concerned to perfect their compassionfor all humankind, wished to know allmankind’s troubles.Mankind, said the one,seems always to be quarrelling –always too ready to pick some fight –how can this be?It seems, said the other, that in order toassert their selfhood and to be ‘somebody’,they must then invent an enemy,who seeks to take something…

by the tone of voicein which they say thingsmy mother, saying of a particular personwhom I’d never met – or if I had,would not have known what to make of them –‘She’s a simple person’and the tone of voice with which she said thiswas full of compassion, without a touch of criticism:it meant, she has…

gaze into a history that answers not;lost in the troubles of an ancient peoplewhose hearts are not, yet could be mine..I need to talk to the Psalmist: now:for I cannot carry all this burden;for despite the burning poetry of faith,my ears, my mind, my heartfind neither mercy nor sweet justicerunning to you, arms outstretched, …this…

with all its magic,had a smell?Do you remember?Do you rememberwhen you first saw itand all your senseswent on full alert?Do you remember?Do you rememberhow everything about it –the scary learning,Dad’s careful teaching,the moment he let go of the seat without telling you,the first time you went out on your own,all these filled a new world…

five toes walking youwhen your back feels tight;five senses yearningin the half-filled bed;five times memoryboth alive and dead.