Somebody, move

She’s dancing

Whittled toes tipped, scratching dirt

and earth and dust and grit

Teeth together

Smiling? Providing closure for a tongue

too twisted, tight lipped.

Bend over. Shoulder cold and bare like the rest

She never rests.

Twirling, hurly burly

Concave legs.

Play the music, she says; the one that goes like this –

And she bursts like the heavens.

Open gates. He knows it, for sure

the music he makes

Little truths

Sometimes, it’s in the chaos

Always brooding like the wind in treetops, creatures sifting

Lifting themselves above it

Above everything

Sometimes it’s in the silence of knowing

The stirring of sadness; creeping up with a pungency that bowls you over

And knocks you off your feet.

I guess it’s in the senses, in the sensations of all that I am,

that I know. Quietly

screaming all the time

That I miss you.

Non Committal

Do you want me?

As much as ever.

How much is ever?

I’ve no idea.

Birds of a feather

I could wrap us up and present us as pretty
but we, us pair – coupled up like birds on a wire
are just too brittle for that.

Parchment paper. Delicate, protected.

Not neglected.

And as that phoenix bursts through the words that you pen

time and time again

remember that.

Ruins.

They lie dormant

in the hollows of this dusty soul.

Quiet

yet committed to vengeance upon the sun’s leave.

Serpent tongues hiss

Eyes sleep

and creatures

wake.

Valentine’s

Hallmark has me stuck

The fizz of us bubbling

on folded paper.

Drawn up.

Aye, she said.

Aye. Am fine, honest.

Fine. Like a clear, English morning come the month of May?

Och, said she.

Like a Picasso.

The Essence.

The world has lights that make
you want to breathe in
and clean up your dusty soul

Blinding.

Finding constellations, learning
ways to read them, resisting temptations to burn them in a heap
on the front lawn

like so very, many times before.

Now you’re feeding your heart a three course dinner
Winning – you’re a winner and smiling proper, too

Unusual for you but I think I like it

Bottle some up for me.

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I see hope is radiating 

from your strong, highlighted cheekbones

Mirroring your fears like souvenirs

and all the strength that you broke

When you started mending nicely

And folk said you looked gamely, save the eyes 

That seep your secrets

What to’morra brings 

I’ll let you know a secret 

Wrap it up and keep it

It still bleeds deep within

You’ve got that look that could still a thousand heartbeats 

But you hear a banging in your ear

Losing more, without me

Don’t you see?

I’m your plastic millionaire 

 

The hold

You’re there

in those moments of space 

between the  places where white noise waits  

for silence.

But as the clock turns on

chiming time with a bird, and 

I find it harder to succumb 

to quietness

and feel you slip, between the 

cacophonous  cracks.