Howard Firkin
With you away and me left here
the clouds feel free to drift and spill
their rain on gardens that aren’t you

I thought today I’d count bird species
I’m up to twelve and that’s without
a single sparrow not a one

I’d like to make an observation:
the lack of sparrows seems to hold me
hold me back or hold me still

The city doesn’t loom, it peers
like Foo above a flat horizon
I never noticed that before

When sunlight flashes on a window
the window of a building or a car
I think you’ve signalled me again

you haven’t though you haven’t sent
a signal from that place you are
to here that place you also are/aren’t

You know the reason no one cries
in public? No one’s got a reason
not a real one not like me

with you away and me left here
and helicopters in the sky
and tears like rotor blades and rain