A Tisket A Tasket Poem by Katrina Willoughby

At the edge of the world where the day
begins shadow dreams unwind their fingers
from the throat to stealthily diffuse as
ocean mist while a music box plays Django
Reinhardt

yesterday evening the man with the morning
star bright on his brow walks carefully where
the stone wall crumbles carrying his commitment
in an airways bag
his shadow rummages
among last week’s newspapers, dead leaves
autumn sludged canals

truth has long been known to him often
recognised when passing in the street
once passed as soon forgot it seems
these days there is no common ground

it is never convenient or expedient to
remember the woman in the fringed silk
scarf dances on the music box and keeps
his conscience in a green wicker basket

the evening sun angles grid patterns
disjointed dungeon bars follow his steps
down the tread of the grey warped stairs
he walks whistling Welsh love songs
leaving his shadow swimming face down
where the sluggish current tugs fretfully
at orange peel cigarettes dead leaves
yesterday’s decisions