Pink Dusk

Pink Dusk

My ancestors came from such places
The sky was pink and dry

In the morning
A brilliant star still hangs above the hibiscus
And the shouts of distant children
Decorates the air in tota bells

Soon dust will spray
From the lower roads
But in the high hills
A lone kite floats wistfully
A green unmoored boat
On a sea of violet blue.

Pink Dusk by Veronica Aldous

Poetry and art all rights reserved Veronica Aldous 2024

Brain Worm

My brain is misfiring today.
It wants to go rummage in dark mold
The remains of past leaves
Which is not healthy
Aspergillus in aspic.

It wants to stand under a tree
That was cut down in 1974
(And even then it was a bloody awful tree)
It wanted to write a triolet
Bring back the old guitars
Which were broken up for scrap
Lost letters, lost loves, old hammers
Battering inside the casing of black lacquer
Oh me, the adieus! The shivers!

“You were a devil when you were alive
And worse now you are dead! “

Veronica Aldous all rights reserved 2023

Absence and Longing

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The wind blew the dust of the orchids
Till they fell in tiny rain
Pocketed by the silvered banks
In vegetal greensleep

Ghost, Lady’s Slipper, Pyramidal
Helleborine, Creeping Lady’s-Tresses
Hear lost songs and murmurings
Their seed mouths pursed

For ten years, small fingers tap
The diurnal coils, feathery roots
Two tiny leaves, then four
What falls and rises in that time?

Waxen palest starlight, cold moons
Summon the princesses
Their slippers are violet, pink
dappled, toad striped satin

Dancers, if you part the grass
Stare deep into their eyes
A hidden lover’s shivering fancy
Such things pass and are purblind.

 

Veronica Aldous all rights reserved 2019

 

 

 

 

For World Poetry Day

And those in hiding

We embroider the hems
The old star worn sky is pricked through
Emblems of linked children, winged
Horses parade, in blue soaked windows
Here, as we hug ourselves close

We were magicians, witches, mermaids
Writing poems on walls, on our tongues
On our very underwear.

Veronica Aldous all rights reserved 2024

Artwork Jus by Veronica Aldous copyright

Impediment

High small room
As she recited
to belong
to  this clean light!

a cup was brought
pale coffee
two biscuits
the blue book
well handled
was put away
Father B reassuring
re.the Devil

‘I am sure you
know nothing
of His Works.’

pale blue beads
counting down
to another world

she did not like to
think of him
having any formless
thing
that makes men into
a curious fuzzy insect

Veronica Aldous all rights reserved 2024

The Young  Priest

The child is lost now
Mortal sin to kill it.

But I was fourteen
I could not keep it

He shivered
It was all wrong.

The girl was a bent stalk
Her brown hair hung

Starred with droplets
He longed to touch her

The sky was luminous rain
Flowers raised their faces

All of it is sin
His tongue said

His heart pumping
Down tiny corridors

As she knelt
Breathing sorrow

Transparent
As a winding cloth.

Veronica Aldous

All rights reserved 2024

Not to be copied, altered or reproduced

Hygge

The wood pigeon
On her roost
Good morning
My sweet
She opened one eye
Sleepy in the fog
From the tenement boilers
Folded into featheriness
As if two hands held her
Snugged in wool
Just my wish warmth
Sky is the rooftop
Of our love.

Birdsong by Veronica Aldous

All rights reserved Veronica Aldous 2023

Stage Directions

At the margin
Is an upturned boat
Resembles a coracle
No paddle, beached
In a forest

The revenant
Sitting there again
Smoking a damp cigarette
Shut against it all
Gross gardens
Snail crushers

“People are shellfish
They open and shut
Like my left eye.” (she points)
“Sometimes, they emit
A low whistle…
It comes
From a gaseous space.”

Veronica Aldous all rights reserved 2023

Incensual

My name is Isao
Under painted leaves
I watch the small worlds
Rain.

Cold does not reach me
I am ever wet from thinking
Barefoot, my brocade
Ragged.

I long for the cedars
Here on this seat I wait
For the taste
Resin.

Far off is a bell
It stuns the temple in my ear
Echoing in the bone pavilion
Memory.

If I tip my head so
Open my mouth
The sky falls into me
Bowl.

All rights reserved published

Veronica Aldous 2023

Empyre

Follow the link below to hear me read Empyre

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtZdpqptcl3/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Transient Superconductivity

The moon at 4am
Is the muezzin
Kindsadness
In the living bark
In my fingertips
My hair freezing
In its true purpose
As electric antennae

A vibrant nightjar
Ululating comfy
Bliss,
In the erect eye
In my earwatcher
The ancient lizard
Of a bird
Drilling at the silence.

Veronica Aldous
All rights reserved 2023