I stood on the sand
At the edge of lapping water
Waves crashing in
And fleeing back
Thinking about jumping in.

It was the same sand
I built castles in,
not 10 years ago
With mom and dad.
But they are gone now.

I want to see them
Want not to be here
Without them
Living is so hard.

But a single gull
Flew down to my feet
From the blue, Summer sky
Landed in the foam
At the seas border.
Began pecking and eyeing me
Nervously.

I stood still
Not wanting to spook him
Or lose this connection.
After pecking for a minute
He looked up at me
His eyes seemed to know
Know me or….. something.

“Dad?”

I said.

I’m still here.

© M.H.

12:01pm. 26/07/25

I scraped away
the sleep
from my eyes.

And there you were.

Lit by sunlight,
Framed in the glory of everything.

I turned,
still half asleep
but mostly half awake,
expecting you to be gone
when l opened my eyes fully.

But when I looked again,
squinting against your radiance,
hand up to my eyes,
shielding them,

you remained.

“I love you”, you said.
“Do you love me?”

I couldn’t answer,
because by then,
you had become the sun.

And l awoke at last from the dream.

@ M.H.

This is dedicated to my love Milana x

Your lips moved,

A whisper in the wind.

My listless feet,

The heat of hot heels.

Your eyes glowed,

A spark, hidden in sun.

My kissing hands,

The touch of far lands.

Your hair swam,

A carpet on the stone.

My sleeping eyes,

The view of dark stars.

Your words roused,

A slumber of the heart.

My sense-less senses,

The scent of dead blooms.

Your lips move,

A word inside the wind.

My concrete feet,

The sound of quiet wheels.

© M.H.

Once,

When you loved someone,

When your every waking thought,

Was filled with them.

When you’d smell them in everything,

When you’d pray for the ground to open up,

and swallow you whole,

and spit you out at your lovers feet.

Once,

When you dreamed of them,

With a smile on your lips, when asleep,

Even if that sleep was dark and deep.

When you walked out in the rain,

without an umbrella and didn’t care,

and spoke to strangers,

with the heavens in your hair.

Once,

When your love was returned,

It grew, multiplied, took on its own life,

Was something seperate to you.

It became a whole other being,

That, although miles away,

and in a place you had never physically touched at all,

was as close as your own skin,

and dwelled peacefully within.

But now,

Your love is not returned,

Your sky is not the sky they see,

Your words are falling on silent hearts,

And all that your love, has come to be,

is a cold, blue lucidity,

that sucks out the fire of infinity.

Now,

You’re mindful of the rain,

And always venture out prepared,

Strangers pass you by, and never know your smile.

And now,

You want the world to simply swallow you whole,

and hide you from the rain awhile.

But still,

you love.  

© M.H.

Stars litter the pavement 

But I cannot trust my memory.

Stepping light with amazement

I still recall the elegy.

It slumbers in adversity

Sky grey, like concrete.

Singing their own reverie

The graceless bones that are my feet.

© M.H.

We always fall,

Into this orbit,

Like two disparate satellites,

Drawn on some eliptical path,

By uneasy gravity.

We always part,

I leave, you leave,

Our pull weakens on the other,

And we drift into other galaxies,

For a short while.

We never stay,

Locked, like moons,

Our constellation, constant only,

In that it always shifts its shape,

Like errant stars.

We never go,

Too far from tides,

If all links were severed for good,

We would be nothing but debris,

Lost in deep space.

But when you’re here,

The sun shines bright,

The fire drives off the cold, dead space,

That infiltrates my singular trail,

Temporarily.

And when I’m there,

It’s hard to tell,

Where your orbit and my worship end,

And where our paths will diverge again,

As they seem to do.

So we just bask,

In the novae,

Of our countless collisions,

And our many uncomfortable fly-bys,

For it’s all there is. 

© M.H.

Sweep out!

In formation!

Let NO-ONE escape!

We’re going to do this,

Building by building!

Charge up, 

All your weapons!

Shoot them on sight!

We’re going to find them all,

Building by building!

Stay sharp!

Watch the skyline!

Always advance in pairs!

We’re going to do this,

Strictly by the numbers!

Keep low!

Check the darkness!

Don’t let fear defeat you!

We’re taking back this land,

Destroying, by destroying!

© M.H.

I regret them all,

The wasted seconds,

That could have been my life.

I mourn them all,

Those undone kisses,

For she who should be my wife.

All the seconds ticking, gone,

Like the beats of a silent song,

That my heart sings.

I recall them all,

The forgotten words,

That should have been my book.

I shunned them all,

Those misplaced smiles,

For those who cared to look.

All the moments moving, gone,

Like the silence of an unstruck gong,

That my heart sings.

I yearn for them all,

Those musty hours,

That grow old in some cold place.

I plead in silent recall,

For all the unspoken lies,

That never graced my face.

All the hours dying, gone,

Like the whisper that waited too long,

That my heart sings.

I tend them all,

Those invisible weeks,

That melt into years of regret.

I collect them all,

Those unspent wishes,

Though, for what, you know, I forget.

All the days dawning, gone,

Like the dischord of the unsung song,

That my heart sings.

All the seconds ticking,

‘Til I am gone.

All the metronomic silence,

Of a song sung wrong,

While my heart cries.

Dies.

© M.H.

You got to live where I called home,

You got to wake up in our bed.

You got to see the sun the same way,

What about me?

You got to hold our childs hand, every day,

You got to revel in small things.

You got to smile and breathe again,

What about me?

You got everything that used to be ours,

You got to count in calm seconds.

You got to live shielded from desolate hours,

What about me?

You got the noisy rally round,

I got the stunned, shunned silence.

We got further and further apart,

How can we compare?

I got the alien feeling of waking somewhere strange,

I got the unevenness of heartbreak.

I got the transient gnaw of not belonging,

But did you care?

I got the begging at a door that used to be home,

I got the fleeting glimpses of my life.

I got the crowded sleep of a junk-shop room,

But did you care?

I got the paper lies that ended it all,

I got the cold of the knife.

I got the snatches of a smile from afar,

If you only knew?

We had a shallow basket, filled with storms,

We had a hollow, fragile heart.

We had a thin, evaporating kindness,

What about now?

What about me?

© M.H.

The bloom of static,

Punctures dark and ominous

Rain-filled cloud.

The voice of the storm.

The flash of power,

Everything frozen, suspended

In monochrome.

The colour of the air.

The crash of thunder,

Rumbles deep and thrumming

Inside cold bones.

The cry of the sky.

The boom of fire,

Sears bouquets of scars

Upon wet, singed skin.

The mark of the spark.

The petals of contact,

Open out like hands, pleading,

Bleeding in this rain.

The touch of the storm.

The silence before the dawn.

© M.H.