Clockwork

You were expected.

At *Maeshowe in Midwinter
You unclicked a Neolithic lock
Tripping its workings

For six months the earth relaxed
Unwinding Winter into Spring
Slacking Spring into Summer

And now you’re back
Frantic for that lock
Your golden clock ticking
As you fumble for
The keyhole
That ancient fissure
In the rock face

But Orkney keeps its secrets safe
Only once a year
Will its aperture appear

Soon Winter will
Trap your twin
To dint and dunt against you
Like a wasp
At a window
Dancing with itself

© David J. Costello

* Maeshowe is an ancient burial chamber in Orkney. Only at the Winter Solstice, and only for a few minutes, the first rays of the sun illuminate the central chamber due to the alignment of the passageway leading to it. The chamber is believed to have been constructed around 2,800 BC.

Summer Solstice

David J. Costello lives in Wallasey, Merseyside, and is co-organiser of local poetry venues “Bards of New Brighton” and “Liver Bards” . David has been widely published and won the 2011 Welsh Poetry Competition. http://www.wirralbard.x10.mx

Birth Day

You didn’t see them at first.
Segmented.
Like a fruit in cross-section.
Each slice seeded.
One doubly.

Not like last time.
The same grey screen.
Gradients of shape.
A leafy tremble
fluttering inside.

Then your multiple choice question.
And you grasp the answer.
And your world doubles
then doubles again.

And you consider spring
while your doctor ponders autumn.

© David J Costello

Quadruplet boys born in Bristol on 'leap day'
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David J. Costello lives in Wallasey, Merseyside, and is co-organiser of local poetry venues “Bards of New Brighton” and “Liver Bards”. David has been widely published and won the 2011 Welsh Poetry Competition.