Poems - JP Melville

Last Summer’s Mornings When I Woke december 1982 jp melville Last summer’s mornings when I woke I’d throw my blankets off and climb from bed Pull on my jeans then mutter my way downstairs To step outside and out beyond the house to hillside. Looking out across the valley span I’d take my morning piss And breathe damp air, cool, thick Tasting like grasses and pollen and pine - My skin would shiver against the moisture My arms, my chest, and back and belly naked My toes and feet gone numb in wet grass; Arching backwards – ugh – stretching Spreading arms and fingers to dawn’s pale sky. Down in that valley, there’s a stream In my memory blanketed By thick morning, winding mist Wending its way wherever the waters beneath it did… And the old leaning willows and cedar groves looked all asleep Because it was darker down there in the valley Darker than the hillsides where dawn’s morning light Sunrise just skimmed over our hori...