New Poetry by Tony Hughes

Till the Wind calls the Sea

(The Twelve Stations of the Grief) 

The first four months 

To know love

is to not have love.

  

I can’t feel anything:

hunger for food

thirst for drink

tired for sleeping

one foot step to the next

one after the other 

how do you live 

without your lover’s 

breath on your skin?

You live waiting for the veil to lift 

for the wave to stop crashing 

for the window to stop opening 

for this mad mantra 

these tumbling 

thoughts one 

after each other 

to last 

longer 

The second four months 

I don’t hear 

your name anymore 

I call it out

CASSANDRA 

three times I call 

I can hear it again  

it sounds so good 

I run to it 

I try to hold it 

to  touch it 

to smell it

to taste it

to eat it 

to sleep

with it 

What else 

am I meant to do 

with this 

elegiac 

silence 

I call your name

again and again

Into the

fucking 

elegiac air                                                 

time wins 

time always

wins 

it cant find 

land anywhere 

the air is too solid 

CASSANDRA 

has been

atomised

more months pass 

Ghosts are thoughts 

thoughts are ghosts 

dreams are real 

you visit four times

 

I say its ok 

my succubus 

you can stay 

you say no 

you whisper 

I have to go 

the wind calls 

the sea 

You point to the light 

from across the river 

the light that lasts longer 

than the oldest tree  

that’s where

I’ll be waiting

for you 

where the wind 

calls the sea 

This twelfth month

Everyone loves Yoko now

just another cycling thought

 

I peddle into Sydney park 

carving layers from the 

peppery skin of my grief

Under a big blue blanket sky

in the pretty city

I scratch this self awake 

it is time to live again 

Peddling my thoughts 

into Sydney park

that’s a big hill 

up to the skate bowl

I wish my wish

could be here

where the dogs

run free

chasing poems

with me 

Till the wind 

calls the sea

- © Tony Hughes 2021

Tony Hughes is an Australian actor and singer. As an actor, he starred in The Lost Islands (1976), Chopper Squad (1977–1979) and the film adaptation of Puberty Blues (1981). As a singer he has fronted Bellydance and King Tide. (Courtesy of Wikipedia). Cassanadra Woodburne, the CASSANDRA of this poem, was Toný's life partner and best friend and mother to their two wonderful children, Georgia and Eddy. She passed away on 22nd November 2020 after a long and courageous struggle with cancer. The photo was taken at Era Beach where Cassandra's parents own a shack.