Glue

The pineapple sticks
To the glue
We are making tea
Dormouse rattles the cup
Tips the teapot
Spills crumbs
At our feet
I don’t think I like this
Says Alice
Softly
We do not want to wake Dormouse
As he crawls back inside
Trip skip slip
We want to wear time
The right way
We unfold the dusty map
The one kept in our pocket
Long since tinted by the sun
The lines on her palms
The tips of her fingers
Synchronized
With mine
She puzzles
Trying to work out the answer
You know I really don’t think there is one
I brush out her hair
Smile
At the first chance we should
Use the glue
To stick down
The tea pot lid
Then we must
Use the steam to blast ourselves
High up in the sky
In the sky we can stand on the cloud
Spin the second hand around to twelve
Then we can begin again

We can go home Alice
I say softly
For all the minutes
In every day

The pineapple melts in our mouth
Like sunshine
A tincture
That warms us
Inside
Like everything is right
All the seconds
Tick tick tick
Integral

Lying on the red blanket
Under snow laden skies.

Upside

Time is upside down
Again
Like we are tuned to the
Wrong radio station
The flower clicks
Counting every second
Savoured
Like an exquisite
Liquor
Resting on our tongue
We lie on the floor
The red blanket
Nestling our edges
Cold brushes
Our face
We catch it in our hand
Slap
Crisp
Like a second
Been and gone
All that we need
For now
The clouds pass
In a slow dance
Turning the sky
On its head
The branches
Bones
Glowing
Aching
With words
Years
Slowly growing
Like liquor
Ageing
We close our eyes
The silence
Gentle
Magnificent
Swelling inside
Our belly
All that we need
For now
We breathe in
A second
Time resting on our tongue
Clean the edges
Tune the radio
Gamble across the stars

Time is upside down
Again
We stand on our heads
To figure it out
Giggle quietly
As the red blanket
Holds us in the sky.

Over

I fill the red kettle
Listen to my dreams
Boil
The water level drop
Split
Listen
As the spiders crawl
Follow us
Down the side road
Dark
Like real
Something we must attend
To
The chain has been kicked
Already
It echoes
Bounces off the beige
Walls
Body
Brain
Intact
We shuttle around
Breathing
Clear vanilla sky
Powder clouds
Grind them up
Make a paste
Fly
Clear
For a moment
Thud
We fall pulverised
At the end of a dream

The memory is bigger than the house
A curiosity
And a dread

The floor bends as the door shuts

I forget to ask what it means

She holds my head and whispers
It is over.

Chair

On the little chair
Sits a thousand
Unread words
Like a heart beat
Dull
Forgotten
No bones
Under the
Black flowers
A crater that cannot be filled
Love
Lost
Missing
Person
Knock the door down
I am not home
Never have been
It’s all just time
Waiting to be filled
Like sunken skin
Slip trip
Lost my footing
Time trick
Tricked
Tricks
There is no electricity
To combat
The static
Bzz
All is gone
Little white cat
Jumping through the mirror
Face sliding off the door
Thumbing its nose
Every foot print
Worn into the wall
Into the stone
Bone
Bones
Loss represented
We cannot lift our head
It lolls sluggish
Not ready
A broken phone
On the road
A thousand
Words unspoken

On the little chair
A story
Bound
Untouched
Unexposed
A heart beat
Dull
Forgotten
Waiting to be extolled.

Thirteen

Thirteen
Under clay
The simple angel
Snatched me down
Wrapped me safely
In a box
Blue
Blanket
Cover
Waves
Ringing in pairs
Like a bell
Fixing things
Quietly
Under the splinter bed
A trap door
A rabbit hole
A little girl
A pale blue dress
A pretty face
Dashed like pepper
Weathering the lies
Thirteen
Under clay
They tried to rip us apart
Simple angel
Unpeel me like a powder purse
Tear my head from the sky

Thirteen
Simple angel
Under clay

Trip skip and hug the floor
We are on the bright side of the moon
Wiping the clay from our eyes
As it shines

It was not luck
We tremble
We clawed our way out
Three hundred and sixteen days
Seven thousand five hundred and eighty four hours
A boulder behind us
In our throats
That one day we may swallow

Lucky thirteen.

Seventy Two

They string the dolly up by her head
Like a message
We creep past
Say hello to the tall man
Open the door quietly
Play out this
Service

Back and forth
Back and forth

It’s all a calculation
Forty eight hours
Five little petals
For a beautiful black flower
Nobody gets to see
Six today
Seven tomorrow
Next day
Stop
Seventy two hours
Start again
If I could stand
I would laugh
But I roll
In the red bed

Back and forth
Back and forth

The voice
An instruction
Do it
Stop it
Why did you
Submit
It controls you
You don’t control it
Thud

I am naked in her arms
Glowing blue
Black
Red
No end
Illuminated
No highlight
To ride
It is all going down
All I want is the silver out of my head
It won’t shift
However hard I try
Smile
Lock the door
Calculate the hours
Click my heels three times
Read the pocket watch upside down
It really is such nonsense
A piece of work
Nobody gets to see.

Advent

I am in pursuit of this wild prison
I look to her to be loved
Me and Alice through the lens of good hope
Her skirt ripped and cruel
The cash filthy in my hand
Our voices croak
Long nights spent huddled
Over the potion bottle
Licking the magic dry
Which never comes
Which never comes
This is the first day
What happens on the twelfth sobs Alice
What will we become
We have no pennies left

Come down my sweet
Sit with me in the dust
It is like a cloak
To keep us warm
To hide us
Though we want to be seen

We must stand fast in our enchantments
Our stories
Let those who study the heavens stand up

Alice interrupts
She knows the next line
Will they save us
No

But those who gaze at the stars and each new moon
Predict what shall befall us

See

I am not sure
Shakes Alice
No. Me either

It never pays to change a story
An enchantment

Her tiny body rests against my slowness
Venus
Love
She joins the dots
With words

To love a thing means wanting it to live

I hold her
Tightly
My little love
My hope and end
Her little blue dress
And weathered shoes.

I turn away so she does not see
My tears for her
Absolute love
Swallowed by the rain.

Shock

I press the wrong button
On the coffee machine
Back in the place
Where time wears me out
I could cry
There is no sugar
To help the powder down
To help the powder down
How far away the bench feels
My little line of hope
My little line of hope
Sat on the kitchen floor
Gagging at the feel
Of them
My little line of hope
Where do we go Alice
We are at the bottom of the well
When they think we are at the top
All is a mirror image
Reality stares me out
Pink eye
Blown up
Blown up
Head
Like feet to large to walk on
Sinking
Sinking
Into the immaculate fix
Hanging in the back like an axe
I should fear
But love
I have these words I need to say
But I can not
Cheshire Cat chews
Messes them up
So they are nothing
Not even sounds
Just say it
Fucking say it
The thing you need
Is what you fear
And yet inside
At the end of the potion bottle
You know it doesn’t exist
I drink the bitter coffee
Shake my head
Rub my leg
Now is the pain
Now is when it hurts.

Fun

I tie off my leg
With a pretty blue bow
They’ll never look there
I am so clever
Clever
As the dick
Who spray paints
Their name on the wall
The comfort brief
But necessary
I own my body now
A little trail of
Magic and powder
An eye stuffed to capacity
With silver
The comfort brief
But necessary
I am so clever
Stuck on Deuteronomy’s column
Powerful
Powerless
All
Nothing
The snake thick and orange
Bending up the glass
For air
Survival
A nagging insistence
Though every minute
Aches
Untidy as a frayed blue bow
That drops
As I drop
He is still stand up tall
At the bottom of the mirror
Dorothy was on the other side
I chased her for a bit
Like walking down that alley
With the stain on my coat
Hiding what’s exposed
I am so clever
Watch me tear apart
Strong as three-ply
Not so clever in the morning
When the mirror doesn't spin and
Dorothy is nothing more than a word

A fancy
Swept away in dust

You look better in yourself
You know
Thank you
But I don’t know who myself is any more
I cry and laugh on the cleanly stained floor

When the owl calls again
I will be blown home
On a cloud of frost and stars
I sit and wait
And wait
For her.

Force

The pipes in the dead house rattle
A laugh rumbling through the splinter bed
Shut up
Let me dream the right words
Find the border between awake
And alive
The road in the floor sinks under
Free fall plight
Echoing
Empty
No forces or foot soldiers
Standing behind with shot guns
Ready to fight
For me
With me
Apples on heads
Bullets of breath
Trouncing me
Taking me down
In sight
Out of sight
Standard issue fatigue
Fatigue
So tired
Shut up
Let me dream the right words
I can learn to hold you right
Right
Love
Pulls like silver heavy in my eye
Life inside windows
Behind doors
Strangers who raised hell inside me
On me
Burnt fire into my skin
Shut up
Let me dream the right words
Alice are you there
This dark is like molasses
A sweet crisis we could gobble up together
On a pretty picnic blanket
Thankful hit penny drop fix
Dependable as gravity
I want this place to end now
Shut up
Let me dream the right words
Hurry down blue sky
Silver ladder
Pink balloon
Golden car
Soft boots
Shiny key
Green bus
Orange light
Shovel through the rubble
Of this war
Collect your heart in a jar
Stitch your soul back on departure
Run Alice
We must run
And never look back.