I have waited under the drum Of the merciless ticking hands; I have tried to bide myself, And not get in anyone’s way. I have sat quietly on the lino, Facing the kitchen door; Whimpered occasionally, just twice, But mostly just stayed silent. I have watched the shadows shrink To nothing and grow again; And [...]
Take your brush and paint my skin: Draw thick green dye along my arms (and flickerbrush tiny leaves up my wrists) (and dot tiny pink flowers on my arms) (and scroll tiny ferns around my neck) take the tiny tapered teasing brush-point and tickle a line of grey along my throat. Move it slowly, make [...]
the berries, full and juicy, hang prominent and glowing, with promises of sensual invite. they drip in clusters luxe and bold, catching the light and sun and urge hungry teeth to bite. lustrous and rewarding, the flesh swells round with nectar, that over the lips and teeth of the daring run; bringing the sweetest stain [...]
Rising, out-of-child-hours, in search of something, -water–nurture–warmth–something– I drifted in the house. (My reflection in the microwave door Gave support to my younger brother’s Lifelong fear of a resident poltergeist.) The blue and flickering room, a new light, I’d never seen it so, Random programming, passive noise and colour: an audience of one. My father [...]
I wanted to write a limerick on the dog, Her many noble features: I drew a bog: And, mired in sappiness, stuck fast, gave up; I can’t write sensibly about the dear brown pup. She strips my skills back to primitive rhymes, And makes me struggle with syllabic times. (Of course I mean the poem’s [...]
When I found out the messages my brain passes on to me, Were a garbled mix of all I’d heard, and not self-discovery, I decided to stop listening to my brain as secretary. Instead I found some words: some verbs and then I found some nouns, I found a thin and polite voice wanting to [...]
In this lily sheath grew a violet-scarlet mop of petals; Sealed underneath the prim white and sturdy cheeks. Until a borer beetle landed, in full sun, and tried to nibble At the lip of the lily sheath. He tore it, just so, and flew away. And then the lip of the lily sheath began to [...]
Three cups at my table, At the head, the foot, the side, Predicated on preferences, As diverse as the table is wide. At the head, blue and white china, Low and broad and deeply bowled, Filled with the strongest (and milk-softened) tea, As much as the pot can hold. At the foot, a bone china [...]
Positioned with pen perched over pad, The perfect pose of administrative fervour; A deceitful posture, since she’s writing a ditty, In the margin of expenses-per-quarter. On the left side are plans for an ankle tattoo, On th right, what words rhyme with ‘ointment’; She’s successfully fooled ‘em, until it’s revealed, She’s forgotten the boss’s next [...]
Marginalia sublime Holds promise for a time When I am not confined To this meeting. Cruel and spartan desk-fenced jail, For the pinstriped and the pale, Too defeated to gripe or rail, At this meeting. So I drift my pen about, Watch as scribbles tumble out, To escape the tedium devout Of this meeting.
