Tuesday 10 October 2023

Shapeshifter

 




A crow lay one day quite dead. The late afternoon clinging to it.
Its imprint on the window pane, shocked into being.

The stars above me are screwed up scraps of paper.
I threw them way up there.
On them, written previous indiscretions.
I glued them so they stick in the air.
At night I look up and stare at all the constellations.
Here on the earth of my limitations.

I once crushed a lady bird.
I once told someone I had no choice.

Taking my comfort the dead can't be disappointed.
Passive aggressive Ouija.
Granny always proud but concerned about money.
I don't think my ideology is healthy.
I need belief in me the dead can't be disappointed.
One day I can't be disappointed in me.

I once buried my bodies in you.
I once stood soaked through to the sin.

 Crossroads on the highway say "your place or mine?"
Chewed honeysuckle and geranium.
Fish feel free to swim but they're still in an aquarium.
Sometimes divinity doesn't seem so divine.
Sometimes humanity shows itself as being human.
Every climax casts out a confession.

I once thought fire was sped up time.
I once wanted to burn the history, all my failings.

Pureed into test tubes for unusual experimentation.
Don't think it always was this way.
Concrete alien crafts with square tiles for carpets.
Probed by grey suits beside photocopiers with tablets.
Morning abduction meetings require Geiger readings.
Absurd language lacking meaning.

I once didn't give something I should have given.
I once read a science fiction story from nineteen thirty seven.

A time traveler pinioned a prehistoric bug specimen.
When he returned to his own denizen:
 Fascist pessimism was the political scene.
People added jam after their cream.
A rain of heavy night swept the land of the King and Queen.
No one much cared how this came to be called living.

I once shocked an unhappy memory into being.
I once wondered if disappointments cling to the dead.




Friday 3 March 2023

Swan Vesta





This is... Swan Vesta

Lying between your legs.
Head on your hip while you read Brecht.
Doing anything else would be a waste of time.
This inclement June.
I nuzzle into your cotton.
My rib-cage slips under my skin from my breath.
My fingers sliding underneath the elasticated band
Of your ankle sock.
I might as well try to stop the birds in the trees
From singing as here and now stopping wanting you
"The curse of reincarnation
Is growing pains"
No more than a growl.
You say:
"Your monsters are like
 all you have read are medieval texts.
Flowers grow crooked in angled sunsets"
I say: "Leave me to preying wolves"
You say: "Even when your empty skull is found,
I'll put my middle finger into your eye-socket and
 I'll know you again."
"Writing is eroticism."
"Intimacy of writing in the ink I gave you"
I say: "I run a finger to a smear of wet ink
letters across the paper so I might place each 
word on my tongue."
Your reclining whisper:
"It's like an indie girl taught you how to kiss"
Quote "One's freedom fighter, is another's terrorist"
I spat a lot of blood out
in the bathroom sink.
You say:
"When time turns flesh,
You can twist a knife in, really mean it,
And twine ourselves between its naked warmth"
I feel every moment
When you enter my head.
I say:
"Spending time with you is a fetish you sell.
Quote "What isn't Heaven is Hell, can't you tell?"
Our rib-cages slip under blood and flesh
When we breathe.