Armada Psalm to the Spanish Main

You were more Romany than Dutch
in most of those  inclinations gypsy
not polite unqizzical Amsterdam
a head of flumed unwilted magenta
a jack in the box of surprises
that could not be upbraided

I still cook for the both of us
although there’s a chef travelling
with the circus in Spain
last I heard north of Barcelona
in the best of sumac and spice
the lead aerial and a mania on rope

Here I fly solo in practised anticipation
a spiral hovering where present recedes to past
buffeted and a little unsteady
arms out legs bent in a parachutist’s pose
not sure the net is forgiving enough
to hold comfort in a wind tunnel of sprains

My Iberian blood sandwiched centuries ago
between an obsession of Princes
and the lure of aqua marine imaginings
forecastled and entwined as abandoned lovers
made threadbare and honest on the Irish coast
a siren that broke what was left of Seville

wandering is not only the recourse of nomads
and your laughter needed a place to land
but I miss its elegant solution
the way the hoops crash an argument
juggle and make inane the proposition in spheres
as my anchor drags its weary way home

First published in Contour Issue 2 the Love Edition Worcestershire Poet Laureate Magazine Spring 2018 edited by Nina Lewis.
Unstill Mosaics – The Book of Love, Loss, and Longing 2019.