Sense

We crash splash

Through the awning
Hit split the pavement
Like stones
Empty our pockets 
Empty our head
Make ourselves lighter
Harder to chase
She leans in my shoulder
Breath thick as butter
Propels fluid through my sleeve
I remember that smell
Of her
Of countless buried cells

We run until the sun gives up
Rest against the wall
Spin numbers and words like blankets
The wall is strong
Sturdy enough to hold us 
Should sleep decide to come

They want us 
They circle I and me
Huddle and plot
No pause or reason
Launch every pointless chase

Our brain spills in the field 

ammonia
bleach
trash bag
recycle
friend
cardboard
phone
blanket
sheet
stiletto
heel
scare
hole
head
unsolved
frightened
girl

I look at her
Everything bows like rain on canvas
Trip skip uneven terrain

Speechless relentless not happy not sad
It always ends here
Joyless revelation 
Before we sink
Before we stand and run again

What do you want
I want to want

How do you make sense of the world
I don’t

I reach for her hand 
Stand and run again.

Saved

She is not afraid to jump in grit puddles 

Her bare feet bleeding 
Covered in filthy water
Pink balloon slowly going down in her hand

She tucks time behind her ear
I drown happily in her chaos

Time falls on the bed
Four thirty forever 

I am granulating
Like sugar

She shifts her feet
There has been a wedding
The flowers wither on the end of the pews
Like love
Like a meddlesome pulse that will not stop

We are facing overhaul
Bye now
Four thirty stays forever

The tea steams waiting for light to come
She pins the curtains behind her ears

Watching 
Waiting 

I had a plan you see
Not to see another ten
But she came
Feisty as fuck
Jumping skipping
Tied to pink and dreaming 
Hauled grit puddles 
Slapped my hand 
Little yellows
Little whites
Waiting on the floor
Better than dreams
You know

Easy as pie
Delicious as chaos

Her knife stabbed us together
Two bills saved on a receipt spike
Two little girls 
Stuck in four thirty forever.

Signal

We eat at the sink like savages
Orange and peppercorns
The only thing left
Pink flowers in the chocolate tin
Milk is gold
The cat is queen

I sent a signal
Quietly
Silently

They smile through me
Not at me

We are stuck in my face
They stuck us tighter 
Tape and gauze 
The milk came back 
We breathe on the ledge
Stop our feet from fluttering
It is nice up here
Quiet
Looking down on pigeon and crow
We put the petals on the shelf
A candy treat to save for summer
When sun meets sky
And everything we need turns gold
North shifts face
Tape lifts gauze turns dry
We peel it off 
As if it was the skin we lost
The gold we need to hold and treasure
We guzzle the milk 
Cat laughs and squeaks
We are on top of the moon 
We spit the orange and peppercorns 
It burns 
Acid as their smile
She meets my eye
Wipes my fingers on the kitchen floor
Thick as bed mates
Sticky as sin
The radio ticks a constant hum
Empty report
Nothing but savages surveying their haul

we wish we wish we wish

Not for hope
That would never do

I sent a signal
Quietly silently
I don’t know if you heard.

Misadventure

I am getting ready for my misadventure

Pack a bag

Comb your hair

Lick the powder off your fingers 

Know your limits

Set your limits

He taps me on the shoulder

I pass over the nasty collection of teeth

Too much sugar

Too much sweet

See how this is ruined 

It's only safe to draw the curtains

In the 

Day

Light

Now

He turned orange

Talked a fire

I lay on the bed

Hollowed out

See how this is ruined

When circumstance exceeds ability

We all fall down

It's all the same

No matter the window

We long to jump out of

It’s all the same

Killing time

Nothing right 

Maybe it's a change

To the scheduled plan

The strain of falling shoulders

The ruined mass of time

I wake up laughing 

Wrapped in your blue dress

Hunting emeralds and dimes

I am getting ready for my misadventure

Pack a bag

Comb your hair

Lick the powder off your fingers 

Know your limits

Set your limits

I turn to the window and smile

See, I became everything you expected

Blue and green descending in a poppy field of crime.

Minor

It spells out love on the tin
But it won't let me in 
I eat bed in the dinner
Bread disaster chaos
All wrapped up in alabaster sheets
Brighter than sound 
Or love
These sheets are mine
The same sheets that saw my breath stop
Forced time and space to continue
All around a mind
Wrapped in plastic
Wondering why air came back 
And breathing
The roaches crawl through the strawberries
Slide down my throat
Better than nothing
You know
We trip skip at the edge of the bed
Altitude forcing the powder down
It really is so quiet up here

No sound
No love
No people

But we have to come down
To find the words
To say

Our shoulders are ripped tearing and torn
The red dribbles down in the tub
On the floor
She makes her apron dirty
Mops me up
Wipes my head
To stop it spinning
Wraps me up in cotton
There really isn’t anyone like her

The words come more easily at the end
Clear as an evacuation graphic

Stop 
Drop
Roll

It’s a very minor procedure
Nothing more than removing the pebble from her shoe
On the contrary sir
You will find
That rehearsing one's death is a very grand affair. 

Shatter

Our landing was clumsy 
We crashed through the sky
Like an axe scattering 
Glass dreams
Filling potion bottles
With tiny pieces
Of life
Names
Numbers

We’ve been cutting the edges off time
So nothing connects
You know 

We are shattered

The paper follows us
We can't work out the story 

White 
Sheet
Ghost
Dead 
End
Smile

We settle against the blank wall
Listening
Half alive
Half vanished
Catching our breath 
Rubbing our eyes
Hoping for an answer

We are shattered

She reaches for my hand
I hold her fingers
Wipe away the dirt
From the journey
The crash 
The landing

We will leave I whisper
One day
I promise
We will leave

Her fingers feel stiff 
Old as words cemented on paper
Unmovable
Stuck
Surrendered 

The blank wall
Writes us
As we rest against it
Like time reclaiming its edges

It all feels so big
And so very small

The children leave on Friday
We must follow them again
We already know 
The crash
The fall
The shattering
We have coloured it a thousand times

Without the fall there is no paper 
Without the paper there are no words
Without the words there is no you
And without you 
There will never be a me. 

Disconnect

The skin hangs off my face
Like bones tipped out a bag
Disconnected

I put my stomach on the table
It is in pieces now

Burn
Burnt
Burning

Too late she squeals
What’s done is done

The peanut butter and ash 
Sticks to the back of our throat

If you hold it to the light
You can see where the veins
Made life

I am much older than you
Even though I am small

In many ways you are
In many ways you aren’t

Is this another riddle
I really am bored of riddles

I know why I keep you
Nestle in the blue and white of you
The perfect hue of you

I was a child
Tipped out the bag
Disconnected
Holding her stomach
When it growled 
Louder than he growled
Sat under the table
Just to change the view
You know

She stares at her finger tips 
Chewed and turned a thousand times a day
Bored

Nothing changes then does it

We are just a grey sky
Melting away in time
No right no wrong no upside down
Everything amoral 

The skin hangs off my face
Like bones tipped out a bag
Disconnected

We count them and rub them
Try to believe
Like magic pennies
They will make wishes

But it is far too late
What’s done is done
We are too old to hope
That wishes and bones will reconnect
And make our dream come true.

Bird

I am looking through trees
Summer is there
Risen in green
And powder
Always powder
Dripping off the leaves

Blackbird hops from stone to stone
Singing
Wake up 
Wake up
Do not fade and fall

Blue rope
Dead bird
Broken window

Pink amalgam
Silver tooth

We chew up 
The middle of night
Swallow our eyes
And bury the tree
I could not tell you what we see

Blue rope
Dead bird
Broken window

See the morning steal the sun
Leave us on the floor
Free for a moment
Only one

This is how you leave me 
Spilling over your coffin

Fix the window
Tie the rope
Bind the wing

Wait for light
For life
To fly

I am looking through trees
Summer is there
In green
And powder
Always powder
Dripping off the leaves.