PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT

I've got a secret  that I feel like undressing and sharing
With you all,
Stripping liltingly from the bottom up
Then watching the fabric and weight of
Heavy words fold and fall
Languidly, silently
Stretching into something more,
By the time this game
Of Chinese whispers reaches
Your burning ears,
I would have turned you into something else
Moulded out of thin air
I'll stand back and watch the pounding flames
Of a wild fire
You won't recognise yourself in this light
My work will be done

BACK TO BACK

Don't wake me when you leave,
I never liked the back of you
Though it's the side I've seen the most
The backhanded comments
Slight of hand, slightly outlandish
Out of hand,
And all this time, it was you who
Blocked the sun,
Dimmed the light
The reason I couldn't breathe.

GREAT HOUSE

"We live in the same house, but I hardly see him. He's always busy. The most I ask him is if he wants anything to eat. At dinner we eat and he goes upstairs early to sleep. I stay downstairs by myself. At our age what do we have to talk about, what is left to say but laconic replies, when we have spoken day in day out for a life time. I feel as though we have used and reused all the words possible and now we are reduced to grunts and mumbles. It's difficult, when he does say something I get very angry and I say things he gets very angry. The day we become all about hand gestures or simple facial expressions as responses, what then? Silence that bounces off the walls, echoes, meddles, settles."

PERIPHERY

Everything feels like the edge,
And I pledge my allegiance
Spread my arms, like wings
And drop from above
The waves sing,
A song that
Carries me to the edge of
To the brim
To where the pavement ends
Where the sea bends
Where it crashes and curls
And hurls me to the edge of.

EXIST

Remember back when,
Way back then
No I don't, I feel you can't have both, both present and past
So every new day takes away a day from the last
Until there's nothing to reflect back on,
I reminisce and miss this very moment as it occurs
Because I know it will blur and fade away
And I will furiously dissect the planes of your face
Try to place you in particular time and day
Laugh at the way the tree leaves ruffled and the wind rushed
around us,
And the blue in the sky, the clouds that couldn't cushion my fall
But I can't piece it together right
Can't remember whether the jagged scar
Graced your cheek on the left or right
Tell me, how will I know I existed at all.

RHYTHM SECTION

He said, I want to marry your voice
And wrap my bare hands around your vocal chords,
Control the volume and tone accordingly
Making sweet sounds
That melt on my ears,
Silver notes that cascade and tumble
Softly
Like the first tuffs of snow
Clothing the naked ground,
And each snowflake is a frozen thought
Of yours not yet spoken
But fully potent
Until that glow
That white light
Slowly
Dies out.

ON THE RISING

She has watched the same Sun with its stupefying colour, blinding and beautiful rise from the depths of  this undeserving earth and take its place in the sky. There it has reigned supreme, with a backdrop of endless possibilities.
It should have stayed down in the pool or pit from which it came. At least then there would be no concept of time or measure of days wasted. And that feeling of time running out, when the sun begins its gradual descent and the battle ensues, darkness pushes through, the abandoning stretch of light is swallowed and suddenly the birds in flight appear to fall through unbearable hollowness,
would cease to exist.

BRIEF ENCOUNTER

This is the closest I can get

Always from a distance,

Across the street

Overwhelmed by the rush 

Of 9 am feet,

On the wrong bus

2 minutes too late,

Crowded bar

Overflowing with lust

So when I think I've got a hold of you

Your breath, a lingering scent

Something 

I can carry home in 

The palm of my hands

It's gone in instant

An illusion

A smoke trail

Slipped the cracks in my fingers.

ECCHYMOSIS

The sky is aching
Swelling like a fresh bruise,

The clouds like damaged tissues

Are breaking

Scattering,

Into tiny fragments

There is blood clotting,

Seeping through muscular layers

Blotting out the horizon,

And everything from the earths

Surface,

It won't survive the night

Birds will gawp mid flight
In this abyss

We will be still

Say a prayer

We did this.

WASTE LAND

We grew up and grew apart
They should have warned us from the start.
All flowers wilt and die
All days succumb to grey
And leave us abandoned, stray
A mangled heart whimpering in an alleyway,
And had we known
Braced for the many faces of misplaced emotion,
Maybe we would have held hands longer
Stared into the depths of each others eyes longer
Kissed and missed each other longer
Talked longer
Sat in silence and just listened for longer
Maybe we would have been stronger.

ANOESIS

Clouded minds
Find themselves intertwined
Ruminating back and fourth
Pulling at decision strings
A tug of war
Suffering
Divulsing under the pressure
Of influence
The left side is weakening
Now yielding
To a centrifugal force
The right side has no remorse.

YOUR DOWNLOAD WILL BEGIN SHORTLY

Depending on your connection

This may take a while

And you want to see it all,

So be patient

Sit back,

Let me occupy your time

Infiltrating cells

Are you paying attention?

No.

And when it's fully loaded

When your mind is fully mine

Let me waste you,

I'll be dexterous and extract just

Enough to keep you intact

Fact,

The truth is what we all decide

Delete that.

Copy and paste 

Repeat that

403

There was an error in your download

There was an error.

PURPLE

Hush hush,

Tender morning

Raw from the night before

With open sores, the colour purple, lilac, violet

Violently weeping

Quiet now, quiet down

Untangle limbs 

Share some skin

Pass on by morning

I've had enough of you,
Your nacreous lies and promises.

NO KIND WORDS

He might as well whisper

His voice holds no weight

Words diminish when spoken

Disintegrate and separate

Reduce to ash, hang in the air

Then fall,

So it's as if he never spoke at all.

COMMON PEOPLE

I don't know, we just started to say hello. We passed each other every morning, usually around the time the hands passed 8 o' clock. I was on my way to work and he was walking his dog. I think it was just the regularity of the situation. So it got to the point where I'd approach our crossing path and I'd look forward to seeing his face. This stranger with familiar features. His crooked smile and the plumes of smoke hovering above his head. I sort of liked the fumes that followed me after he'd gone and hung onto my clothes. There was something about not knowing him, but knowing he would be there everyday, a common factor. It felt like my day didn't get off to a good start if I didn't see him. If we didn't exchange those few words, it threw me off. Like I'd missed the last train home at the beginning of the day. That's what routine will do to you, it will mess you up.

SINKING

There's this deep longing,
A thirst that claws at the throat
A dry, stale taste
Clinging to the tongue
And not a word or song could spring
From her lips
The desire to go, grows
Sink feet into new sands, discover new lands
But she does not know which waters to pass through
To quench it.

TRAILS

Maybe I don't want to suck it up,
Walk tall
Head held high
Proud and all,
Maybe I want to slouch
Spine collapse
Leave a trail of broken bones
Like stepping stones.
For you to follow,
So follow me
Down this dead end
Lonely road
Follow me.

CELESTIAL DOME

I am obsessed with the sky,
Overwhelmed by the overwhelming volume of it
In awe of the colours,
That burst, that streak, that scatter
And the millions of patterns
Drawn across the atmosphere
I've lost my thoughts up there
And they've settled on wispy clouds,
Drifted and sailed away,
Formed in another time and place.

THEY'RE COMING

Grab your daughters,
Grab your sons
Leave what you can't carry and run
Swallow the open road with the soles of your feet
Let them burn with avidity
Let them burn orange
Let them burn red
Let them burn, a new day is ahead.

ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY NIGHTS AGO

The beat descends on us

Spiralling like 

Live wire, sparking in the air

It tingles and sends shock waves down our spines

When the sound touches the ground,

A hundred feet, no a thousand maybe more,
Jump,

Suspended for lengths that defy time.

Then comes guitar strums

And banging drums

Our movements sync, a mass wave 

That grows in volumes from left to right

Drawn out synths explode

We get low and spring back

Work up a sweat

Wait with bated breath,

And then he steps on stage.

DEAR OCTOBER

I can feel you coming,
Lingering
Like breath on the ear lobe
Probing on the back of my neck
Like a stabbing question
Left unanswered, awakened by this chill
Hanging in the air heavy and opaque,
Just be gentle October
On my fragile state
Because my state of mind,
Not as agile as it used to be
Worries incessantly,
Will my old bones cope with the looming cold
Will they be crushed to dust,
Ebbed and swept away
Ashes to ashes
To cover the same ground,
I slipped upon, and lay broken on
Finally settling like frost.

SUNDAY MOURNING

Walking the desolate streets
To this dead beat,
North bound
Towards the sea
To drown out this indecorous sound
Your voice,
Like toxic waste
Spreads across the surface
And with the tremor of a bleak wind
Spreads like an oil leak.

NAKED

Make no mistake,
This is about you
And how you grew over my life
Like mould,
Spread to the core and damaged my soul
Rotted the whole of my heart,
Make no mistake
This is about you
And how from the start
Fine white threads
Of lies were woven
Through and across me
By you
Covering the good in me
Covered entirely in you
Until disposable,
Make no mistake
This is about you
And how you seeped deeper
Than the appearance of sunken eyes
Hollow cheek bones
The shallow dent between the collar bone
And the space created below the rib cage
When inhaling.

CLIPPED WINGS

She landed and another one took off,
dragging white stuff through the sky
that looked like fluff, evaporating, gone, puff.
Smoke
She was flying through the air,
a nervous breath held here and there
and now her feet are firmly on the ground
but this other one came down differently,
from dizzy heights
ear popping sound, puff,
Smoke
She could just as easily have been on that flight.

FLOCK

He walks the same route home everyday, walks everywhere in fact. Even in his dreams he walks, walks right over that cliff. He hasn't walked his dog in a few days. Notice how people just walk right past him. Notice how he walks with his head down, as if the beauty of the sky is mirrored somewhere beneath his feet. He walks deliberately and precisely, with the determination of someone with a definite and important destination. Destination unknown. He could walk for hours and often did and if you were to ask him what he had noticed on his travels he could describe art, recite the feel and movement of pavements like they were poetry. But he didn't talk as much as he walked and his steps were often all you heard.

MASSACRE

Her words cut like glass,
Like the brass end of a nail she's
hammered in
And I'm cowering inwards from this
pernicious onslaught
That can't be fought off,
My heart flinches
Misses a beat
And she cringes
At my pathetic state
A string of curses
And she seals my fate.

END OF

If they're looking for me,

tell them I'm on the steps
the ones that lead to you know where

waiting,
if they ask what I'm waiting for
tell them 2013.

BATTLE ROYALE

Burst

Everything scatters,

Like glass particles, shards all over the floor

Be careful where you walk -

This is her grief dripping down the walls,

This is her guilt pooling on the carpet, sinking,

A stain will remain.

Farthest in the corner her conscience clings

To things, to stay alive,

Her temper springs, tries but doesn't survive,

Fear is desperate to be revived

Her shame cowers and hides,

She swallows her pride

Wiping sick from the corners of her mouth

She stammers, purged.

ROOTS MANEUVER

Where did you stem from?
Look how you've grown,
and blossomed into something
rather exotic looking
forgive me for looking.
I feel like birds could rest on

your shoulders or hair

and it wouldn't look odd

or out of place

and rivers run through you

still rivers, bright and clear

reflecting a newly rolled out 

morning sky

cerculean and glorious.

And those lean legs 

could walk through an Amazon forest

and not look out of place

with their length and strength

a panthers prowl

and I'm seduced by those swaying hips

Goddam those lips.

THE ROAD

This is a simple man

With a simple plan

Feet firmly on the ground

Take a glance 

At the distance he has travelled,

And the distance he will go

On the road 

Is where his story unfolds

Mile by mile,

And at the end of this road

There will be another, maybe winding

Maybe narrow

Overshadowed with trees

Obscured by fallen leaves

Opening up and breaking off

Uphill,

Descent

But he will proceed

His resolution is in this movement

And the trail he leaves behind

Is his statement.

AND SO

I'm letting go







This smile is too heavy to hold.

BARE FEET

We have ran around corners,
Bare-footed
Without looking and missed nothing,
Followed the clouds choking the sky
With our eyes
Then watched the same clouds cry
Jumped in puddles,
Our faces look amusing with ripples
Contorted and muddled
And when the pavement ends
We have stopped traffic
Dead end.

INSIDE

Not very pretty on the eye, this place
from my bedroom I can't even see the sky,
can't see the light
blind,
no notion of time
everything's pretty much dark,
grey,
fading away.
And they say it's no different on the outside.

FLASHING LIGHTS

We have slept through it all
Slept through the night
Seen nothing in our dreams,
Our future in burning lights
And it has burned bright.
When we have looked away
Or closed our eyes
We have still seen the fire,
Engulfing,
Singeing our eyelashes,
The vibrant pulse of flashing colours
Imprinted on our retinas,
And the optic nerve is rattled and nervous,
By the intense heat.

FALLING SLOWLY

Give me a tear,
Just one
Streaming down
Any cheek will do,
Something I can see
Something real.
If I can,
I'll take two.

WAGE WAR

A troop of clouds charge across the sky,

Packed with explosives

Bombs about to drop

Don't look

You'll be struck by a burst of colours

Streaks of powered blush

Custard creams and milky smoke,

Don't look up

You'll choke 

On the beauty

Of moving ghosts

Wisps

Engulfing and raging

Squirming then merging

Severed and torn apart,

Don't look up
Don't look.

DECEMBER

We rise and still we fall short.

POT OF GOLD

Wake up,

Sleep now and you'll miss

this

arc of light, soaring over roof tops

Spilling over tree tops

She asked,

what if it rains, will the colours run

like crayons falling from the sky

I said we've got the sun

Don't worry about the

phenomenon of spectrums

just get up.