lost and pinned

so many pavers aren’t broken

but missing along the wayward path

from the disused stables to the house

flanked by weeds that look edible

aloe leaves all bled out, past transfusion

soil jet black and rich but also arid –

water in the blow-up pool found

in hard rubbish pulses with tadpoles

and a warped laminated print

of a painting of the back of a boy

crouched panting on a Black Forest path

sinks, floats – the painting’s title is Lost.

·       

by night, the tall aluminium cone

a colander the size of a boy

is lit from within by a tea light

the patterns it casts on her walls

show Siamese cats eating stalks

of curling grass, and quenelles

of shadow in pointillist clouds –

mice, it seems to me –

mice with pinned tails trying to run.