Here is a selection of poems I’ve been working on recently.
Soured
How long standing
in her kitchen
tomato plants and basil
old newspapers fantailed
Suffolk’s expanse
belligerent at the windows.
I tear into the flesh
of her love
sucking overripe citrus
crunching pips to oil my tongue.
I have outgrown the colour orange.
Still she sends notebooks
cardigans, wallpaper samples – imagine!
Morning’s chewy body
taunts us with wine-stained lips
and her, resentful at the sink.
It was dad’s honeylove of booze
that got us here.
Don’t blame me – I’m the child
in this house.
Matthew jumped
and everyone was pleased
to get A grades that summer
muted parties
Uni places
Shoulders up by ears
tight-lipped relief
for everyone except
Matthew’s mum.
Storytime with dad
Hobgoblin had a way with words
strung lanterns through the garden
where fairies bathed their wings
lighting nooks of my childhood.
Strung lanterns through the garden
I followed always barefoot
lighting nooks of my childhood
creatures scattering like sundogs.
I followed always barefoot
until he died of emphysema
creatures scattering like sundogs
lost boy refused his fate.
Until he died of emphysema
left me always searching
lost boy refused his fate
as he raced through the trees.
Facts About The Moon
I don’t know about the moon.
So where to begin?
I met a man a brightness
He wore a signet ring
on his left hand
a mosaic of scars
across his neck and jaw.
In another lifetime
we are friends or more.
In This
I know he fist-bumps.
Got promoted asylum seeker
to soup kitchen chef.
And me I feel my age.
Should I spray magnesium
on my feet? a ritual
to late-stage capitalism.
I feel layers of myself
streaming off into the wind
catching on the blackthorns
that stand embarrassed
by the motorway’s bleak edge.
Hoarding vagrant hours
of sleep like oyster shells.
In another life
I am sister to the moon
a trampled puddle
straining at her glow
In this life
I heard his tent was set
ablaze in the night.
Tonight while I sleep if I sleep
I dream a soft scalpel
round my forehead
gently remove the brain
slide her into warm waters a cleansing
Let the hurt start to dissipate.
As for us we never could
hold onto our borders.
I am all tides and meteors
and heaven knows
there is no middle ground
with those beasts.