White lilies underneath the moon

White lilies underneath the moon.

        Twenty white-hot blooms

before the privet dark

of hedge and house.

                                        Incandescence

        bled in the bright narcotic poison

        of torment and dream.

        A ceremony of sinister candles

        flaring from the juice-fat-neglected

        garden growth of sour weed and dodder.

        A procession of smoke-still torches

        led past an ancient uncut lawn.

        A strange uncanny luminous intensity

        that sheds no light.

        Rows of bleached stains

        upon the thick fabric of fleshy night.

        White lilies underneath the moon

        mocking the dark vast sky

        on which they turn.

 These poems are from my new collection IN THE APRICOT DARKNESS (view the cover and contents below in my recent posts). They are now being published individually, daily under 'recent posts' on my blog and will be available shortly as an eBook that can be read online or downloaded for free.