Alice left wonderland, People brag about getting bad grades, Everybody likes you – Nobody likes me. When we destroy something It’s always my fault, I just did what I did – I need a title. I put myself through this – Anybody would say that She chose that line out of all the lines, You […]
Poems
A Murder Is Announced
Farewell, my lovely – Pearls are a nuisance of human bondage. Beloved, never let me go walking on broken glass; to the lighthouse. Love – In the time of Cholera, kiss Kiss the beautiful, and the damned kiss the dust. Take a girl like you, farewell (My lovely, we are still married) to the lighthouse, […]
Aldrin, in a white vessel among stars
after Sylvia Plath A Sestina for the Final Frontier Rocketeer, the physicists once wondered how you Came to be lying on the rocky ground above the heavens Sculpted in aluminium, under the eye Of chirping stars and a tropical moon, Set in intricate wilderness of grey Dome-shaped holes, like elephant prints, and tribes Of monstrous […]
Darkness
there she was, incomprehensible, one of the six-inch guns; a little white smoke a tiny projectile Nothing could happen. a touch of insanity lugubrious drollery assuring me earnestly her letters were dying of fever the merry dance of death still and earthly overheated formless as if Nature herself tried to ward off intruders; death in […]
Beehive
The honey of promises: wings (to an infant, to the elderly, to the search for serendipity, to the idea of a home), bars (to a minor, to the convict, to the mother of five, to the father of a gun), flowers (to valentines, to vases, to the gravestones of the unknown, to the description of […]
The Red Girl
Teeth like ancient tombstones; her grin was wide and quant Her eyes were not remarkable but light and green and faint Her skin was freckled, her cheeks pockmarked Her words could sparkle, shone in the dark Well I met her at a party, a story quite cliché Slurped my drink and told me […]
You Made Me Lowered
You made me lowered, When you splayed your hands to cut the light And showed me how to trace the night – And I made my paper gods. The jagged bottle, shackles, ashes: Candles and dust Strings coiled with rust. I remember you played for me And the slits of your words Beat time, your […]
Diamond Love
The wind here blows strongly, The sky here is grey. I walk outside, in the bitter cold, While people walk away. Through the winter, I wait for you. Through the winter, I still love you. The dust falls like snowflakes, The sky falls like sleet. I close my eyes and draw my dreams, […]
Shadow Land
It was a twenty minute countdown To the time when school should end Teachers farewelled students Classmates said goodbye to friends Her laugh was easy Her smile was true Her eyes were shining Picture of youth She walked right past the staff room Humming as she went Thinking of the holiday And the […]
Illumination
Lights go on; or shall I say not any lights but candles, or shall I say not any candles, but those eyes; so as to say that when I’ve turned my cheek away, would you turn yours in supple vow? Torrential as the markings that our windowsill has livered, livened by the blanks the meeting […]
Running Through Crowds
When he painted my eyes, he told me I could use them to look out at a future age, while I looked out of the window at the crowded streets I was too ‘refined’ to run through when I was young. He said I could watch the eras shed their skins, and I longed to […]
The keepsake was for her to hang
The keepsake was for her to hang; The opal-eyed countess. For riches, for your family’s name, She was pledged an ivory dress. In company the whispers carry, Rumours sinew, must be maimed- How better by two gilded bands, Your grudging heart in callow hands. To be ordained in her collection, Yearning must ensnare her soul. […]
My Eyes Roamed My Face
My eyes roamed my face Well I say my face, I could see my eyes, Their dull, grey colour had been translated by the artist’s hand No longer matt, they sparkled out of the frame, And my cheeks were alight with a soft glow I had never seen on my own skin. I reached out […]
Portrait of an Unknown Man
My name shall not be known. I shall come into the studio, Dejected As the moon swaying slow in the night- Breeze ruffling skirt hems and loose leaves. I will instruct the painter, “Paint me as I am”. Me: lone and ordinary, Me with my inadequacies. Even the bleakness enfolded In my eyelids the humble […]
Observations from my Brush Strokes
i. His cheeks have wine spilling across them (or maybe I am back at last night watching the red douse my tablecloth, which I could have saved, perhaps, but the sight was too beautiful). ii. Every inhale makes my work more different (they never told me how you needed to contend with the act of […]
CXVII
Rambling fool. He is nothing but that, boy; A genius idiot with an expensive quill And too much time and too little ink On his hands. See the way he idles on those cushions, With his perfectly manicured hands In angles coiffed meticulously In front of a looking-glass, Whilst his stomach practises Physical rhetoric in […]
I didn’t like him when I first saw him
“I didn’t like him when I first saw him All too preppy, all too clean, All too “teenage student’s dream”. I didn’t trust his quirky socks Or the way he’d try to shock With tales of his life, aged seventeen. I did like his favourite book; it’s Peter Pan And he’ll always stop class to […]
Honey’s Monologue
SCENE SIX. INT. IVORY SLEAK RESTAURANT. EVENING. LARRY, 29, is that Jewish guy who thinks he’s black. Tupac is his idol. Opposite him is, HONEY, 21. She’s the Sunday school type; long dress but hair that looks like its shampooed with crack; its mighty big. They are sitting in the far corner, on love seats. […]
The Committee with Responsibility for Ensuring Seasonal Enjoyment
Thank you very much for coming here today, I must say you’re looking well. Not tired for the time of year, Perhaps you’ve lost some weight? Good Heavens! Have mince pie prices really Risen by quite so much? And what a shame, I do recall They are your favourite food. I hope your journey wasn’t […]
Charlie’s Bedtime Performance
Kick kick kick. Kick. Do you like the 183 Panamerican Airlines crash from New York to Gran Canaria? Was it a good plane crash? Would you have liked to be in that air crash? Was it good? Was it good, was it, did you like that Panam crash? Oh cock. (Said proudly, placed on the […]
Dramatic Monologue
Gareth, in his late forties, a large but clearly mild-mannered Yorkshireman. He sits in a worn armchair, nursing a cup of tea. Don’t do much these days. Doesn’t bother me. Got myself a nice little soundtrack to the way of things, you know -television, traffic, usual talk, casual, small. Keep seeing the sun glance in […]
Boy’s Monologue
THE BOY’S ROOM. The Boy is crouched on his knees, rocking. He rocks to the murmured, barely audible rhythm: ‘Make it stop. Make it stop.’ His mutterings gradually fade, and when he falls silent, he raises his head, eyes wild, motionless. BOY In the night. This is what I saw. A man, he says ‘Where is She.’ Stone […]
Girl from Cookstown
You don’t think I remember but I do. Oh boy, do I remember. Your lips, like kissing a cyst. Wet and oily, like a kiss from A fisherman. It was your plan Wasn’t it, to get me drunk? And wasn’t it you who murmured My arse was like two guard cells Round a stoma? Well, […]
The Monsoon Speaks Her Defence
The prodigal leaves return to me, Rewind into the breasts of a rain-tree. Repose. I’m an amnesiac –Malacca, Malaga; Oh, what’s in a word? Not to say I am forgetful. I liked cinnamon. I loved a boy once. He was brown and wore a sarong. Lived in a stilt-house by the rocking-chair sea. He proffered a […]
Rebecca Rolfe
And are you a king’s daughter? I must admit this is not so rather I am the daughter of trees and broad Virginia valley, of white-trimmed water and the skins of deer. Of late, I am a daughter of the Lord, my lady baptised in Jamestown these three years ago and in this at least […]
Postcards From Anywhere
No reason to think of you in Sydney today, Because we’d never talked about opera. Except that maybe you were right— Red doesn’t do much for me. I’d spend my next question on you, But you know how the alcohol can be. Daydreams can’t be predestined anyway, Just like no one drops a star by […]
Perfume Box
I’m trying to overcome random bouts of stinginess. But when I offered jewellery, you casually mentioned that: “Men who don’t buy perfume don’t love their wives.” A magazine said so. Huffing and puffing, I roar our out of sight, to the toy section, hands cold in sweat but maybe warming to this “buying presents” for […]
Postcard Poem about Wanderweg, Switzerland
The pool pulled through seven hollows scooped in limestone, emptied in a single channel fluting through a dark walled gorge. Green and clear, the pool exhaled in glacier breath: a chill was on the place. We left the pool and in an hour came to a castle sticking like a thumb out of the ground.
Postcard Poem about Dunwich Beach
If we talk, back home it is always in double meaning Words flung in the air simply to fill the gaps flung up like discarded clothing, sampling the air for a brighter consistency. We miss more than the humidity notices the starkness of each breath. My blisters stain me with reality, but today I walked […]
Postcard Poem about Rambures, France
Postcard Poem from Brighton
We dance all night, or thereabouts, And sing ourselves to sleep beside the pier. The morning air, sea-chilled, invites us to Remember how the music seemed so loud And how the somewhat overbearing Prince of Thebes Was floating round the room in skinny jeans.
Postcard Poem about Spain – España
Suddenly, the blazing sun rises to greet the Spanish dawn with blinding light. Terracotta rooftops burn like flames in the claustrophobic countryside, and villa walls pulse with heat like radiators. Far off, a hot hound howls, inspired by the midday heat. A squadron of feathered menace revolves up high in planetary-like motion. Wooden sentinels snake […]
Postcard Poem about Hawaii – Hawaiian
A young Hawaiian mountain of a man Taught me to read his whole life on his skin; With how he loved his wife marked on his breast, His family tree branched out from hip to shin – As if the native blood that floods his veins Had flared in navy ink from toe to chin […]
Postcard Poem about London – The Big Smoke
The big smoke has always been around Its fingers the veins running through our wrists Bluer and firmer as we pranced across the stage like Gods Its voice this summer was sweeter than honey And we could resist no longer A train four hours and we had escaped this place’s grey-green discolouration The sun held […]
Postcard Poem about Great Yarmouth
There is nothing Great about Yarmouth where The Empire’s best is a briny comic and silvered palmists tell of future harms or flog tin charms from crumpled crimson booths. a child gives a mole a mortal TWACK! and tired neon lights begin to blink. Oiled paper blows like tumbleweed behind the peeling whitewashed greyhound track. […]
Postcard Poem about Knossos, Crete (Home of the Minotaur)
Dear Reader As I am sure you are aware A hot summer here is truly rare So allow me to show you A more favourable view… The sea a shade of turquoise Sand a murky grey Silent except for angry ones Of cicadas as they yell for attention Whitewashed houses contrast The bright blue of […]
Here
You shed onto me; you Moulted yesterday, you Moulted today, and you’re going to moult Tomorrow — Dandruff, hair, sly bits of spittle and All. Thin carrot slices of your time shed too onto Me; And now what you hold in your Hand is a rubbery old Stump of shrivelled root With no flavour. Shed […]
Home
The only sound is the radio: You and Yours Seeping past the empty beer bottles in the kitchen To rise through the empty house. Home alone, Every room is a museum piece. Do Not Touch. There is something very basic here, very old, Some instinct of childhood – or a whisper Of your granddad’s funeral […]
Where
You phoned me at 3:23 AM, told me the time was a palindrome, asked if I wanted to go shopping for secrets and sea breeze – I hung up. You hummed a song I’d never heard as we wandered dream-streaked streets, talked about how the rain tasted said “I just want to pick up everything […]
Somewhere
You kept a diary, wrote subliminal messages to your future self, in the back pages. A cloud crossed the window and suddenly your room was dark and curved on itself, like a wave frozen before it can fall, except, the waves never fall on your beach. And you will never be hungry. And the rubbish […]
Burning
On your birthday, I go into the garden with the words of a child tied with white ribbon. This is symbolic, probably. Still, it makes sense, since these are all that’s left of her body, and here I am, burning the evidence of her existence. Yes, I am here. I could still hold her little […]
come back
eyes like keystrokes, hair the black and white teeth of Schubert’s favourite song interlacing, replacing baroque and romantic and ragtime and jazz and rock and bloody roll, her teeth: here they are, here we go. her band ready, her hands steady, she doesn’t go, her heart like drumsticks slicked with the sweat of the percussionist, […]
Skin
My skin is the sky, but I’m tearing apart at the seams; a plane leaves it’s mark, as a streaming stain of white dribbles from a cut, and then clots to make a cloud. You lot thought you could just stitch me back up; fill in the cracks like the concrete tracks you use as […]
Poetry Recital, Somewhere in the City
His heart beat to poems recited By the act before him, or so it seemed And in his head were whispers, screamed Like a well projected voice His mind, quivered like so many programs Turning in the hands of a thousand punters Before lights down. Their eyes like predatory hunters Awaiting their evening meal. Fleeting […]
No Man’s Land
The knuckles on my hands ripped- like the top of barbed wire fence, separating my land and yours. My body an overbearing sand-dune dusty, grey shanty towns; aligned on the crevice of my stomach. My foundations; each bone laid out like a row of graves. The curve of my back; an Iraqi road split to […]
If only Al Gore had won…
A pool of tears collect beneath the eyes of her British Isles. They swim and reflect the dawning of men. As her twisting pupils dilate, she strikes a monstrous blow from the fists of her United States. An internal conflict she seeks. An appetite for self-destruction so dire that as she weeps, an island is […]
Space
See that space there in my hand. And that space there on the floor. That space, just like the space, Exploding from my eyes. Space here is abundant, Space for me to hide, There is always space. To much space. So me, they’ll never find. And yet with this much space, There seems so little […]
Add
stars wash away sandmans act as my hand apart. attach. stay warm
Untitled
Gray wall, fat cat yawns. A blank way splays all days. Flash a black flame, pack a mad rat Tat Tat Tat
That Man
That man grasps that man’s a pawn, that dawn’s a handstand and star-fall’s my lawn; that days fall by glass, sand and landmass stacks that wash past drawn swans and art and what a lady says and can’t and sand-cast brass bands. That man grasps that man’s an ant. That man grasps that land’s a […]
Doc Roy, MP
Roy, doctor, MP: long top of polls, Two sons, no dog; strong on God; Smooth. Owns TopShop stocks. BBC vox pops show: “Doc Roy good for London”; “Doc Roy’s on top”; “Looks good for top job”. Doc Roy MP’s cosy. Too cosy. Doc Roy’s got sloppy. On London docks, Tom spots Roy’s boy toy. Not […]
Sam’s Grand Slam
Sam flaps past, calm as a mad bat, Hasn’t a map, sans hat, fad clad, A sad dad at a crap party. Grabs a stand and – Hardly a bard, Sam plays anyway. Crazy jams and whammy bars and… flat, flat, flat. Can’t play any jazz, and jazz fans pack all stands – Sam’s bad […]
Soil
A flag hangs and Sang that day, A man ran at lands, All maps drawn far as A man marks a way; Glad talk and stars fall Back. As a flag hangs, A man walks back And sands mark a land As art marks a canvas.
Tarmac
Sparks crack stars, black as aardvark abysses, and art. Arcs trap brash BMWs, as drag wasps snarl at fast, craft flaws. Warmth gnaws at catalysts, snaps at cars’ last mark: Saharan strata drafts. Crash-clad, A5 bawls at shanty byways, all caravans and hay carts. Lazy rays gray; a flash day. Cars halt at last, as […]
Untitled
Tabby slams wacky tracts at Panda. Panda yawns, “Away and gnash tabby!” – sad and all banal. Aw, Tabby; tall and arch, “Any black cash?” and back at Tabby: crass and sham. “Any hack tart?!” Tacky and gay, Tabby’s away and yawns back at Panda.
Abracadabra
Class starts. Al stands apart by Mary-Ann, awkwardly. As half man, half aardvark, (and all arms) Baths – says Al – lack charm. Crazy, Mary-Ann always stays and stands. And gasps. Al hands Mary-Ann a pack: “Hurrah! Classy Nasal Caps!” says Mary-Ann. Aww: Happy at Last.
Parva Ava
A warm and calm May day Ava grabs a branch and plays Draws a path and says ‘Ha, that’s Ava’s way!’ Day falls fast and Ava gasps At a black sky that clasps many stars “Why, can a man stand as grand as a star?”
At Dark
Drank a glass, had a fag: That’s a start…at dark, lay back, Watch stars amass: a grand And awkward sprawl. All that’s bad at dark shall fall All that’s bad shall fall, shall pass. At dark, man can say: – Was always sad; am happy at last. Can man stay happy? Can’t say. Why ask?