I. Crystalline air and shadows surround the haiku of my wingbeat heartbeat songbeak opening to call a harshening cry on the echoing air. II. Mountain air falling As a river through feathers And haunted sunlight. III. Catch my form in its unrivalled gauche detailing- splaying wings and endless daddy-long-legs’ legs. IV. The descent is flustered, […]

I. I marry my husband on a day that does not exist. He has Song-of-Solomon eyes a bright, forgiving mouth – a kissing mouth. The birds watch from the walls when I forget to speak. The washing lines swirl like planets, the sea between the sheets. II. He says, “Take this. Blood of my blood. […]

In the candlelight of a foreign house, A woman serenades Mozart, Strauss. She caresses her instrument’s fading keys like she caresses the child who sits on her knee. In the speckled light of a tree-strewn yard, a man sheds a tear to the strains of Die Nacht. He plants a lily, as fragile as bone, […]

I grew up in a town with crumbling houses of burning coals and crimson embers. The avenue where I lived always flooded during summer storms. Even the picket fences and closed gates shook, water like moonshine under an iridescent sky. The children were still as the velvet dreams of sugarcane chapels made their mark. I […]

Oh foolish woodsman, the whispering reeds are not sharing their secrets but shooing you, shooing you far from this place. See how the tar-black pools deny your inquisitive eyes, concealing their treasures possessively with a mirrored shield of silvered sky as the water feigns to embrace your reflection but stays your invasion, stays your invasion. […]

There was the run up of vicious gravel to the moment of the smooth stone floor, the yellow honey wash that is two homes to me. The door, green, dark, the crumpled lines of insect netted in two of four corners. The ceiling. The nest that halved itself against the wall, the tightly woven sticks […]

Your doughy fists navigate through space, Orchestrated, the world seems to fold through the lines you dictate. Darling, tell me why and how! I’m teasing you, more than you understand, so Stand up for yourself. Soon you’ll conduct Language, I’ll breathe it into you, Your tongue will snake past the ambiguous mumblings of a, b, […]

Last Winter, in dim lit candlelight I would sit out on the iced terrace cloaked in my Gran’s old fur coat silence was soaked up by the late night traffic on the high street When the clock struck midnight the chime could be heard from Grandfather’s ancient clock it was then that two foxes would […]

(i) the rain saps the world of colour compare it to the fretful hands of children, torrential piano scales; to a silver veil. streets waltz to the deserted seawall. he touches her arm. a surfeit of tenderness; rhymes “river” with “forever.” this gospel of waterweed and broken glass. (ii) the swing park creaks, water glazed […]

How lines structure these receding rooms – their polished floors and divided halls – is how light fractures in their passages. Apertures divide the corridors: every angle strung to a balanced hold. A mother sits enclosed by the shade, before a curtain fringed with copper light: her hand poised, threading a lace, over an empty […]

I remember the fields like a vast green ocean blending with the scent of the sea on the breeze, or so it seemed from afar. I saw the sky like an artist’s palette, lit up in majestic clouds of peach and purple and pink that fell over the hills as the sun set. I knew […]

I am Magnus Who needs the salt spray of waves, the reassuring slap of wake and the controlling shouts of “Starboard!” and “Water!” Who loves the cold push of wind against sail, hull against body, the inquisitive face of the seal and the water’s tingling lapping motion, Who sees the waves race to the pier, […]

In the bakery, my girl grips a pregnancy test like a pistol in her pocket. The baker hands her the key to the restroom and leaves. In the back there’s a small window where he watches men and women and children—I don’t mind, I’ve learned I can’t protect anyone by now. The raspberry danish in […]

Enough of pulling off high heels to run Or else waiting alone in unclaimed ugliness. No more crying out for guitar heroes Or going back to old loves for the safety. Let us build bonfires of those unanswered prayers. Let us learn how to leave with clean and empty hearts Let us escape these attics […]