Valediction

remember this i whisper gazing at green leaves

drenched in the light of August’s last morning

the way I remember sailboats rocking at anchor

a row of multicoloured beach huts against the north Atlantic

the eerie pre-dawn cries of Manx shearwaters returning to their cliffs

the smell of a well- loved pub

sitting across the table from a life partner

commit this too to memory and then

remember winter’s promise of a ladder to the moon