It's Still Life

The House Learns Its Tune Decades I’ve lived here,and only now do I hear it when the wind comes off the sea,south by southwest,my house sings. The gales are no destroyers.They are fingerson the roof tiles,a hand at the chimes.Each slate, a note.Each ridge, a phrase held long. Gusts draw themselvesover the windowsills,thin lips to…

I. Senryudust from distant sandseven the old oaks seem unsurewhich land they belong to II. Haikusahara driftingbare branches fade into mistfar from their desert III. Sahara Morning, West Sussex This morningthe woods forgot their colour. Oak and birchstood quietly in borrowed air,their branches holdinga breath from another continent. Somewhere far awaya desert wind lifted its…

The grass wears its dewy jewels,knowing the sun will claim them.One white feather, soft as whispers,caught in a bare branch thorn.And in the garage,a sparrow sings itself to sleep. And the birds still think I am morning Some images are a collaboration with Midjourney; all writing is my own original work.©Misky 2006-2026.

And the birds—the small ones, the unnamed ones,the ones who live in the hedge’s dark heart—they mistake me for morning. I step out, and they sing.Not to me.Not for me.But because my shape in the doormeans it’s morning. I am, to them, the predictable thing.The hinge on which the day turns.They do not know my…