Fleeting tails in a corner of emptiness
just leaving the frame,
the photographer filming swallows
has to learn to love failure,
how the almost having of the thing
is true in itself.

Gabeba Baderoon, ‘’Learning to love failure’ (from A Hundred Silences)

*

So I drink to become her
to tug the stubborn roots of the heart, sap the past
of its fading film and amber ore, snap the branches
of time because in a blink it is only scent that remains
       and tonight darling even the sea is thirsty.

Janette Ayachi, ‘Passing Places’ (from A Choir of Ghosts)

*

Layabout, M, 43, seeks similar F, 47. No time-wasters.

Richard Price, ‘Valentine: Would love to meet’ (from Small World)