Don't Cry, Mia.

-aroused from my sleep

by the sound of you weep 

Mia, you live in the

half-way house next door

Mia, I live next door, 

to your half-way house
a portal lies between us-
they say, Mia, that you reside

somewhere  

between fiction and reality

madness and normality-

they say you live
in the thoroughfares  

of this world, the hidden 

corners, the sacred spaces

those elusive places-
shared with ghosts 

and jinns and demons

-regions

unrealisable
to ordinary folk
Mia,
you said life is no joke
you were right 

every night
I'm aroused 

from my sleep

by your weeps, your wails 

they reverberate 

they grate,
so do the other noises-

Mia, in the early hours of the day

I lie awake
and I listen to the voices 

I can hear them, 

muffled and low

not of this world

they haunt you, 

they taunt you
you cry.

These walls are so thin

If I could break them in

I would, Mia.

I'd offer you a warm embrace

we all need the strength to face 

the creatures of the dark.  

The wounds, Mia
you said
the germs had spread

infected bloods
 course through your veins
the body a prison-
a prism, a cell.
I could always tell
something was wrong.
In the morning Mia

I think about you 

I wish I knew 

what makes you wail 

like that,
your
sunken eyes
forever cast downwards.

Neighbour

I wish a noble saviour

would save us all.
I wish we didn't have to
trawl,
through these gutters.
Mia, we pass by 

sometimes
on the street and we greet

 each other 

sometimes we talk, 

I saw you in Smith Brothers

buying jumpers from 

the 1950's

and in the garden, we cross

paths. We offer smiles 

and exchange fruit 

I wish I could get to the 

root
of our otherworldly woes
this feeling of otherness grows-

Mia
I used to bump into 

you at the swimming pool too,

Mia, we'd swim in a pool of tears. 

Mia, every night 

I hear you wrestle your fears

often they win and often I hear you cry. 

Don't cry Mia, don't cry.