Distance Soup

I would trade some of the fondness
To reduce the distance
To skin deep
And still have enough leftover
For a lifetime of elevenses.

Dear heart, when you come home
I will make a bonfire of the finest poetry
                          of love and longing
And heat you soup on it.


Reverberations of Loss

The day my cat died

I hoped they would stop the hammering

And the drilling in the flat below mine

For an hour.

They didn’t.

The sun hadn’t been up the past two days

And there was no hot water in the taps.

I found that the biryani take-away

From three days ago

Came with two complimentary tea candles.

It was eid the previous day.
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