(for Eva Sharkey)
What you know, are the only things worth knowing,
you, who give yourself whole
into the arms of strangers,
unafraid of meeting their eyes.
You who ponder your findings,
serene as a pope on your blue changing mat.
Teach us not to care about causing a fuss,
teach us to eat when we’re hungry,
to be ambivalent to fashion, to bear no grudges,
and to love without restraint
this yellow leaf, this face, this universe
composed of passing colours, temporary shapes.
--- Sunday at the Skin Laundrette, Kathryn Simmonds
how apt for this my 6 months' sojourn.