Prayer

I find myself in buildings
Where I can't be barefoot 
Among the lavender,
Inside where constellations
Don't reach,
Among adults
Who see glitter as dust
To be hoovered up.

I want to leave more beauty, 
More reflections of the light
In every place 
And moment 
That I find.
I want to regrow the garden
With elements of space
And watch you wonder 
As words reveal stars
And electric lights,
The Universe.

Some people can see through walls.
And some need windows
They didn't know 
Existed.

LJ Ireton 

Ghost Moon

It is a thirsty, yellow hot morning.
My thoughts are squandered, flat under the heat
Struggling to grow ideas, I look up and
I see the moon -
A hovering hologram from the black hours.
I am relieved for the reminder
Of the night world -
The dreams about beckoning green seas
And hastening purple skies,
All the magic that comes to me in the mysterious dark.
If the Sun allows a ghost Moon,
Midnight inspiration must also be somewhere,
Lingering in the arid day.

LJ Ireton 

Otus is a chest cat

He still sleeps directly over my heart -
The way he did as a tiny cat 
With fluffy stick-up fur and surprised blue eyes. 
Sleek, long and amber now, with a deep, loud, purr, 
His long paw rests across my chest. 
'Mum' he says,
By laying down his head, 
Tucking his chin into my heartbeat.

LJ Ireton 

The Tea Party

Once on the page,
Your creation lives.
The tea party
Never sleeps
And someone,
Somewhere
Will be

Pulling 
Up
A
Chair.

LJ Ireton

Fairytale

The quiet child in the corner, reading,
Is strong - 
They are facing a giant of some kind,

Slaying it in silence.

LJ Ireton

A Sleeping History

I rub at my skin

Suddenly not knowing 
The blood sparkling 
Underneath.
Poison lurks there, bubbling,
Burning every belief
I had -

Even of what poison is.

I try to touch all the things I was told -

Hold on to the shape of me in my head
But all ideas fall through my fingers now
With the hot desert sands

Scratching

My senses,

My self.

One minute of magic 
Has undone me.
Deep, deep under my bones
A sleeping history has awaken -

Looking like the enemy.

My worst fear crawls, rises to the surface -

And I'm afraid of what I see.

But even worse, 

I'm afraid that I like it.

(Inspired by Rose in Twin Crowns)

C. LJ Ireton 2022

The park pond at twilight

At Twilight the solar lamps 
Turn on in the park -
Happy to take on the night shift.
The buttercups and daisies

Are bright yet

Around the water,

The atmosphere floating down,

Darker.

The Moorhen chicks meep,

Scooting into the reeds to retreat

As rain starts to drip on the pond.

I sit in this liminal time

On a bench

While calm hovers

But some power wakes.

My thoughts are like the insects

I can see clearly on the 

Paths with no people - 

Free to crawl out

Searching for something 

Trying to describe

Why they like this time 

So much. 

LJ Ireton