A Morning Kiss

Open the door.

The crisp, early morning breeze

Wants to kiss you with promise.

Not the kind that can be broken,

But hope that flies on molecules

Awakening everything it touches - 

From distant mountain dwellers and herds

To anxious souls in the city, hands

Around a cup of tea, faces to the sky. 

LJ Ireton 

Adoration

No-one can resist the duckling - 
Still fluffy, stubby wings

Jumping each stone step out of the water - 
Two webbed feet together,
Bobbing under a brown cotton cloud.
Everyone, everyone makes 'ooh' and 'aaaah' sounds.

They adore.

Elsewhere, in sheds, surplus to the human demand for eggs,

Hundreds of chicks chirp in crates -

Tipped and sorted into steel jaws. 

LJ Ireton 

The Doll's House

 
The miniature teacup wobbles,
But won't stain the carpet. 
We trip and fall outside,
But not in the doll's house.
Here the perfume bottle -
That scent of a broken heart
Creates a glass dressing table
For the daydreaming doll
And the disordered, thorny garden of tears
Provides thimble rose baths
For the tiny ones.
Placing matchbox beds in order,
We tap the tiny heads of
Ourselves, 
Knowing they are safe. 
For a moment, we know a petal blanket
In a world
That can be fixed with superglue. 

LJ Ireton 

My cat and I watching the stars

We are drawn to the heights of the sky at night -
The flickering stars, that original magic
That is so far from us it never fades. 
Tonight my cat and I look up at the
Tiny dots of light, myself wishing,
Her wondering -
And I realise, more beautiful than 
The animal shapes pinned to that dark fabric
Is the company of her spirit,
Watching the stars with me. 

LJ Ireton