Adjusting by Vincent Turner

With a return of smile, we agree
this new found silence
that hangs in the air
as though
it has no place to be
but here
is not comfortable in its own skin,
like a stranger loitering
at a party awaiting
that first pairing of eye.

We like it here.
Our eyes
virgin
to the permanence of scenery
unlike the locals,
who see not the immortal shadow
of mountains just their persistent
threat of flood.

Each morning
you draw the blinds,
saturating the room
with the lazy lake's reflection-
A perfect postcard
supersized.

Then there are the birds,
dawn-scampering across
the mossy garden wall,
after three weeks
they are pecking
bread from our sill.

Yet at night, in heavy envy
darkness shrouds
the raw stretch of land
showcasing the sky
with clusters
of twinkling stars,
and we feel small
and human
and begin to miss
the rattle of a coke tin
blown down a street
of houses crammed together like teeth

where the distant shrill of a drunken row
was a nightly guarantee
and we'd look at each other
and smile
knowing there were others
Close,
and alike.

But here,
outside,
there is
but the hoot of a lonely owl

and I see you,

huddled on the sofa
beneath blanket
and sleeping cat,
the roar of the fire's reflection
wild-dancing your eyes.

Vincent Turner, lives in Co. Donegal, Ireland, having moved there from London last year. Vincent's work has been featured in a small amount of literary sites, some of these include Full of Crow, Ink Sweat and Tears, Gloomcupboard and Shoots and Vines. Vincent's first chapbook Envying Harry was published by erbacce-press last year. Vincent is the father of two sprightly boys.

Photo by Adam Lawrence.
Street art by The Cheesy Vandal.

Young the Giant is a California-based band and "My Body" comes from their self-titled debut album.