That fire, they said, was red as red as red
as red as a fox, your lips, a cherry;
that fire, they said spread and spread and spread,
faster than a cheetah or a nasty rumour;

In the Carribean
at the end of day
sun drops suddenly
like a fire ball
behind forested hills

I feel it, first as a stir,
turning deep in the murky water.
Surfaces up for air, a twitch
on the lake in my head.
A flip, and it disappears.

We're floating into the blue,
Me and my blue balloon.
Over the rooftops of the town,
The brown fields and the trees
And the Downs – we're floating,

We watch them, hypnotized.
Pale and mysterious,
They rise and fall. Joe says
“They look like ghosts.”

The jellyfish
dances through the water
waving its frilly underwear.

We found one on the beach.

It had become a polythene bag
full of water.

I’m the king of the dinosaurs, number one reptile,
tyrannosaurus rex can’t touch my style.
I’m dressed to kill, got the sharpest suit,

This is the kingdom of the Water Bear.

To enter here, you have to shrink

and slow down, down. A day

is one tick of the clock, one blink

Who will bring me the hush of a feather?
“I,” screeched the Barn Owl. “Whatever the weather.”

Who will bring me the shadows that flow?
“I,” snarled the Tiger. “Wherever I go.”

We turn our faces up and jiggle thirty toes,
Morse-coding longing with our restless beat.
When will it come?
Shepherds on the first Nativity, we scan the skies
and huddle,