poetry from my travels...

the lovers
they wear their sadness
like a scarf
looped round their neck
to stave off the
missing

at bus stops
at airport departure gates
they stand,
limbs locked round their love
stretch a kiss
to prolong goodbye
steal another moment
to delay
the inevitable letting go of
fingers

as one
boards a bus
boards a plane
with each step hollowing out the heart of another
left
behind

© Toni Stuart – Oxford and London, Jan /Feb 2008

mad summer

mad summer

rusts winter love

but

we love still

and ache

then

ask blue sun to soar

stare into

the delicate void

run through thinking hearts

till heaving chests

exhale the longing

and missing

they did not know

is lodged

between ribs

on underside of skin

© Toni Stuart – London, 2007