Poems

forward thrusting
knocking back God
in a glass
libation
after sickeningly strong
libation
impotent
silently whining
the gates are closing
while you stare
dead
straight
ahead

I lost the moon
behind a doubt
I missed her guiding light
to pull me out to sea
then set me adrift to shore at night
lighthouse keeper
old street sweeper
illuminates leaves as they silently fall
mistook a streetlamp for my lunar sister
howled skywards just the same
as neon breathed in technicolour waves
stop, go, stop
in
out
in
out

When we sat talking
through too much wine
we picked the bones of your second marriage
desert-bleached
and fleshless
for over seven years
itching
dry
“that was last century’
you cry
in your defensiveness
little chinks reveal themselves
- tender solar plexus, just under the shoulder blades
all knots are untiable
so it is said
thoughtless repetition
keep lips moving
so there’s no chance
for reply
the rate we’re going
there’ll be another fresh carcass
for [...]

Easter Sunday
done-a-runner day
everyone’s away
just us and the ducks
walking autumn through the domain
Friends of Jesus
try to keep us
from straying into harm
in this paradise
to hold us
safe
Forgive me father
For I do not believe
in sin

I crawled through the structure of your songs
especially the knees
looking for the reinforcements that hid insecurities
They held my weight like a jungle gym
holds a thousand little girls
spinning and screaming
throwing up
as the dizziness unfurls
In the lap of my deepest, wettest dreams
were the dresses you’d made me
without the seems, zips or fasteners
and the intuition
that lay below
all the [...]