further are the mountains ~ mark cobley

you are not dancing

and I have nothing to say

as blank as the field

inside the winter


hedges


I video the electric fence
I video the two horses
I video the foal that is about to die

I video the nettle
two types of cloud
the crab apple


and

beyond are the hills


the silent hills.


the swollen river believes me

station 11

grey flock of doves



little deaths.

I am the village

an unlucky summer

like a genie

quilt works





how the light comes on
when two rivers meet





I watch from this

the medlars

a fruit rotten before it is ripe.



The room is full of birds

jigsaw

goodnights

placid bats

two bushes.



we watch the river

people and landscape

watch how the cloud

lips like Monroe

saints days sister

hennaed hands





the seven sisters

quiltwork

hello ~ mark cobley

Hello.

I am in West Hampstead

I am on a hay stack

I have found gold

at the back of Aldi supermarket.


I lie back on the kiss me setee
put my feet up on the hello there chair.

Are you alright?
Are you sure?

we don't know.

I attempt the next day

Are you ok?
Are you still here?

driftwood
liverpool

this cursed house.



when we meet

then we don't know if
any of this is true




in actual fact we no longer know each other.

we are as different


as birds

the view ~ mark cobley

the big country.

the vast land.

please stand
with you arms out wide at the door
see how much that is
how much landscape how much town
and all within it


this is bigger. wider. larger.



you laugh at the television show.



i like the word laconic.

i'm going to have to take
a headache tablet.

i knock the glass of water
over. But here
i can make it stop in mid-air
not a drop of water
or glass will hit the floor.

there will be no crash.

dead daffodils now in the vase
sun. refracted sun. glass.



what you buy
is who you are.



the birches bend this way
and that way in the wind



from the window i watch.


the house is never really empty. knowing

you are still upstairs. walking about.

drawing curtains.

i have been here before.



in truth i have the ability to change things. alter outcome.


watching red trains depart almost on time. going somewhere.