Sunday people bike or walk for miles
under a wool-grey sky, a warm-as-bread breeze

rising over rocky outcrops, dissolving the day
fast as holy wafers on tongues.

Sunday people leave bad news, regret
moored to the past, set sail

on a sea the colour of slate,
smooth as pebbles whispering

over and over Pors Pin Bay lapped white
as the gull wheeling to a fleck of dust.

Sunday people stop to breathe
pine and larch crouched on a far hill,

patient as dogs waiting
for a shepherd’s call to gather flocks.

And here with you sketching
I watch the turn of your hand,

pen gliding paper – ink taking hold
of clouds, a skein of geese,

a fishing boat ploughing through water
like the prodigal son coming home

to thickets of oak and sloe, a table laid,
forgiving moments hauling us back to earth.

© 2018, Kerry Darbishire
Editor’s note: This poem is included in Kerry’s new poetry collection, Distance is Sweet on My Tongue (Indigo Dreams, 2018)