Crowned

You wear a cat tee shirt

I wear a silver ball and chain

Chain

Chained 

Tied

Tired

To the wall

To the floor

I wash the pots

Ready to be carried off 

Increasing highs and lows

The tea cup swims in the bath water

Some adventure this is

Moans Alice

It’s not even a river

Or a curiosity shop

I will never

Measure up

Measure out

Guilt plays the loudest cymbal

Rightly or not 

I turn the light on

Close the door

Sleep in the room 

Where I am not

Flies

Tries

Cherry pies

I have forgotten 

No longer know 

What to want

The birds sing in the naked tree

Standing century over me

Silent steps

Flap of wings

Loud inside

Stalking feet

Never enough red 

To paint the world

She puts a tea cosy on her head 

Burps bubbly sugar and dust

I declare myself mayor

Over what we are not

I stalk the plains of our periphery

Hoping to find something

A point of entry

A place to begin

First thought

Best thought

Any kind of clarity 

I pull the tea cosy from her head

I think my health is failing me

She looks me in the eye

Greater than age

Beyond seniority

Then first you must stop

And then you must start

Easy

She crowns herself again

You wear a cat tee shirt

I wear a silver ball and chain.

Blacklist

I furnish myself with 

Tinctures and herbs

Nourish

Destroy

Food 

Poison

It’s really quite a puzzle isn't it

She gloats

Young and pretty

Forever and ever

Chewing sugar

On the top shelf 

As illustrious as it gets I think 

Turning to the wall

What did you say

She 

Jumps 

Down

Head 

Hits  

Red

Bed

Dead

I dream about calculators 

Adding things up

Taking things away

Pressing buttons

Aren't they both the same

It’s all just making numbers change 

I turned to winter in the night

She held me 

Tight

Alice chews her nails

Why don’t you tell her

Why you paint yourself in black and white

Sometimes she is cruel

I daub my wall with acid

Then read the book

My book

No 

Another story

I keep my hands black and white 

To hide the tangles and the knots

My story

Who wants to read that 

It is very dull 

Survival of the jumbled bungled and botched

Oh I do like Nietzsche 

She claps her hands

As if she knows

How many chemicals can one hand hold 

Habit

Habituated

Habitual

Let’s split an infinitive

Serve it with jam

You don't even know what an infinitive is she says

I don’t need to

I say 

Sharpening my pencil 

Poking out my tongue

Besides we have nowhere left to boldy go

If you are real

How do you know you are in a book

Because it wasn't my story 

It was his

I hold her hand

I know

I know

What do you think will happen 

At the end

Whatever you want

Although it is never a dream

That’s what they tell you

To make it ok

We lie hand in hand

On the floor

Floored

Flawed

It is true my room is empty

It is safer that way

I furnish myself with 

Tinctures and herbs

Nourish

Destroy

Welcome to the blacklist little girl.

Tangled

The butterfly came in

Just before the storm

She was black

Like the spider 

I did not allow trespass

When I was feeling blue

Butterfly wings move like feet

Whirling

Swirling

Falling down 

Snow

Dropping 

Stopping

Flesh

Another 

Barbaric

Afternoon

Piercing

Hidden

Holy

We flutter shutter by

Another day

Drifting 

Tide

Light

Calling 

Rhythm

Inescapable

All quite regular really

Nothing to report

No secrets to unveil

No movement up or down

Blackbird whistles as she’s baked in a pie

At least she isn’t alone

Pipes Alice

She has twenty three friends all around her

She sits up 

Pleased with her sums

A piece of string is as long as you cut it

And if the storm is small 

It can quite happily rage in a teacup

The wind clicks 

Beetle

Clock

Tick tock

We hold our ears 

Soften the noise

The blow

Fire in the hold

She shouts

Pennies rain on the bawd’s house

Shouldn't that be the counting house

Full of Queens she giggles

I am dreaming pantomimes

Sheltering under barren trees

Like everyone living low

It's ok

Familiar

I suppose

Storms never pass

Mists never clear

Our abyss will never be 

Tamed filled or flowered

The butterfly came in

Just before the storm

I lie still and wait 

Stop drop roll

Would it be bad to say

We are choked by brambles

A tangle of streams and ponds.

Depreciate

I recovered a girl once

She did unspeakable things

I do unspeakable things

You do what you must she says

Uncurling herself 

From under the bed

Stretching 

Stiff

Unapologetic 

I really would miss her if she left

2 4 6

Where's the eight to appreciate

It's five Alice

Compounds run in threes 

How very dull 

And of no consequence

She grins as

We swallow it down

We are tripping up a storm 

She squeals

Symmetry really is super

I can't fault it

If you had real children 

They would all be storms

She giggles and burps 

Mouth full of sugar and draft

I can’t disagree

What a terrible little mother 

I would be

We come down

With a bump and a thump

Funny how trips are quick 

But glued in our head

Like pictures

Some strange family album

Full of faults 

Remembrance

Proof

Time 

Space

Being

Time is so very long

And at once nothing

Like an enigma code

Are we actually here

She licks up the tincture from the floor

Yes

Vividly

No

Excruciatingly

I worry the label

Suitable

For 

All

Ages

How can you ever really know age

She has nodded off

Smiling

Happy

I let her rest

Cherry pick words

Our meaning

It really is slim pickings 

Black skin 

Placed over

Blue bruises

Present tense

And yesterday

Pretty girls all in a row

Leave two shillings

Like you've never been 

She murmurs drowsily

We all have a thousand names

A thousand prizes 

I recovered a girl once

She did unspeakable things

I do unspeakable things

Mercy, mercy 

She puts the back of her grubby little hand

To her forehead

Falls back on the floor

The light has gone

The day has passed

A cool breeze washes over us

We look at each other and laugh.

All in a Row

We line the tinctures

All in a row

There has to be order from left to right

pretty calm sleep

Three bottles

Full to the brim

Like a velvet collar

Worn too tight

Peck

Scrape

Rub our fingernails around the dish

Tongues around our mouth

We can make gold out of dust

She laughs

poor

pour

poor

I freeze

Nameless in the dark

Her Victoria sponge was laced with war

She says

Apropos of nothing 

A distress flare drowning out the silence

Imagine the things we could steal together

She scrambles down from the window

High noon sugar

Low moon love

I am sick of looking out

Trapped

Shacked

Shackled

Shorn

The ceiling bends and bows

It feels like the house is falling down

Or is it us who are falling

Which is which Alice

How should I know

I don't exist remember

She wipes her grimy hands on the once white overall

Either way 

We will hit the bottom

Eventually

Have you seen gravity

Of course silly

It falls like a stone

Like the bestest kind of sleep

When she is my friend

She smells like sweet potatoes 

Baking in the afternoon

Sometimes she is smoke

Choking me

Like a velvet collar 

Worn too tight

I am sick of looking in I think

What did you say

She asks

I freeze

Nameless in the dark

We eat green ham

Put tea in our slippers

They watch me

I know

Faith is the substance of all things hoped for 

She sings

My throat burns and I hiccup

But they can’t stop me

The bell rings seven times

Praise and singing

Is it when everything started 

Or stopped

Both maybe

Rabbit runs backwards

Pretty 

Calm 

Sleep.