... Actually an old write from January 2007 which I was disappointed to find deleted from my backlist (think I must previously have used a copyrighted photo on it! Oops!) Am currently eagerly awaiting the new poet-y film, Bright Star, the purported "true " story of the passionate love affair between John Keats and Fanny Brawne. In the meantime, here's Dylan Thomas and Caitlin back again! :)) xx

THEIR MYTH, MY MAN


“Call me Cait” is how it started,
the night you wooed me with sparks
rising from rich seams of your eyes,
your face crackling behind veils of exhaled smoke.

Augustus before you had painted me
naked, but your voice laid me bare,
your words capturing my profile,
the blush of my soul.

Wild-child lovers we were,
caught in your tousled ringlets of curls
and tossed in my gurgling laughter.

Rimbaud of Cwmdonkin Drive,
you, their tut-inducing enfant terrible,
were blessed from birth and easy
was the life we made,
like fertile soil and harvest.

And golden-cropped our years,
barley fields fruiting bairns, born
of the astronomical light in your eyes
and earth-scented skin of your touch.

But was it misery, mirth or mayhem that
snuffed your candle so cruelly quick,
doused with drink on a New York binge?

I see you now, face the pallor of silk
framing your Pan-like features,
your lustrous hair curling still,
lips wet with words as yet unspoken,
wry, upturned corners of your mouth
speaking aloud:

“My darling Cait; everything for you!”

The world may have the mystery
of your myth
for you gave only me the substance
of your man.