Barry Stebbings

So that I would not live alone,
My parents thought I should be a clone.
They cloned at first two then four,
Then they cloned just four more.
...

At the footbridge where we would stand,
Watching steam trains, hand in hand.
The whistle blew, we shrieked with fright
And waved with excitement and delight,
...

Nothing disturbed the tranquil air,
The tick, tick of the time-worn clock.
The sitter in the wooden chair
Not hearing the gentle, gentle knock.
...

Lead by unseen hand through watery forest,

Drifting silently among sunken glades
...

No shadows cross this dampened land
No blue fills the hidden sky.
A dog's bark in the muted distance sounds
As you and I go, silently, passing by.
...

From whispering voids in darkened caverns made,
A million shining sprites and a million more
Dancing phantoms in playful flow cascade
In sparkling chaos to the valley floor.
...

In cold, silent night with star filled eyes,
Austere Winter ascends her icy throne
And sternly rules under polar skies.
...

Value the industrious bumble bee
Working all of the teeming daylight hours.
Fertilising crops for you and for me,
Taking pollen from the sunlit flowers.
...

In that long dark sadness of your leaving
Neither star nor moon could give light to me
And no sunlit dawn would ease my grieving,
Neither time nor distance enlighten me.
...