Matthew Coombe

Today I am wearing a new watch.
And to quote the song – I am feeling good!

Others get their kicks from new shoes
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The uninvited guests and intruders
that call in the night and rudely pluck us
from the body of sleep are legion.
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I love that small silver thimble full of time
before the start of the day.
A little quiet time to get the job done
before all the work starts getting in the way.
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My pen has hovered over the page like a metal detector
so many times because of you.

All our walks through your woods, around your lake.
...

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This is the season of lawns and leaves
The gravitational pull of early autumn

So here we are, just me and this skeleton rake
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I do not remember where I came across it.
The word just tripped me like a discarded slipper,
lying on a bedroom carpet in the darkness of 3am.
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The long battered muzzle
sickly yellow eyes
and that unintended toothless sneer
are surely the result
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When the hammer strikes the head of the chisel
I imagine the muffled shot ringing out down the

cellblock. I picture myself squatting, waiting, listening
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Let me begin by saying that yes, we will be
finishing early. I am also conscious of time and I

know how busy you all are, I haven’t forgotten what
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Even in the lingering light of this early spring evening
the phrase seems to be everywhere.
It is ticking around the feeder with the clockwork sparrows,
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No matter where you are
such a place always seems too far away.
A small black dot on the far edge of the map
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The simple garden at the back of the house
with it’s playhouse standing in the corner
and the empty bird feeder swinging from the fence
faces dead north.
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What if I were on your list?
The next slippery rung on your ladder
another silver bead on your chain.
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Sundays evenings at home
can be like the dentists
waiting room,
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These carefully arranged letters were not spewed
from a bland machine of beige.
Nor stamped by the spindly hammers
of a much cherished typewriter.
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Recent archaeological finds suggest Stone Age men from
Europe somehow crossed the Atlantic and discovered
America in 14000BC.
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This morning I walked a winding trail
from this cabin through the woods.
The air was warm,
thick from last night’s rain.
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Today I was in the kitchen
sitting at the table
watching the steam rise
from the boiling pan of potatoes
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The air was cooler tonight.
A sign of autumn approaching.
It felt like she was a girl on a bus,
just a few stops from here,
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