Saturday, 27 February 2016

Cough

















We silently cough up 
Silver clouds
Run
Jump
Kiss the moon
Did they say we are troubled
She asks
Swinging on the morning bells
Frayed rope
Last hope
I spray stones in the old tin bath
Touch the water
Dream of oceans
Sail away 
From the mist
The grist 
This
Well that sounds silly
She reels me in
As she always does
Pokes the crevices
Squirts the blood
Look you are scarlet
Just like Queen
She giggles
Haven’t you had enough I ask
Never 
She says
Playing leap frog over sugar lump jars
Why did the cow jump 
Because he dropped his favourite spoon
She comes down 
With a bang and a frown
Fire in the hold
All hands on deck 
Don’t forget the water hose
We sit on the floor
Hold hands
Regroup 
When do you think it will be better 
I ask
When the final pear 
Drop
Drops
I can’t be cross
She wipes her lips
Swallows
Perhaps when the threat is outside
Not in
She thinks so hard 
Her forehead frowns
We hold our tummies
Lie down
Two little seeds
Left to rot
In barren fiery ground

I have had enough 
I say

Too much sugar
Up then down

It’s really very tiring

We close our eyes

Silently cough up
Silver clouds.


Wednesday, 24 February 2016

Taste






















We drink sour milk 
In the middle of the night
Nothing takes the taste away
Not bleach or flowers or birthday cake 
Sad and lonely sits gently on our tongue

As it always has
As it always will

Help is a unicorn 
She giggles and burps
You really are a martyr to the cause

I limp 
Find the cold floor 
Wait for the pillow 
And the fall

This is the sound of us coming apart

Dreadful
Hateful 
Moon
Dark
Love

Purple is magic
Red despair
Blue is life
Just like me
She claps her hands

I marvel at the ceiling 
We have stared at a million times before 

Who am I Alice 
She swallows the last drop
Holds my hand
Whoever you want to be silly
Just like me

I made you up
I was always here
I came when you let me in

My silent witness
My invisible friend

We drink sour milk 
In the middle of the night
Nothing takes the taste away
Not bleach or flowers or birthday cake
Sad and lonely sits gently on our tongue

As it always has
As it always will.

Saturday, 20 February 2016

Leaps and Bounds

















You've come on leaps and bounds 
They say
Did they not notice we died
She whispers
How could they
They never knew we were alive

She rolls over 
Yawning
Well it’s all pretend anyway
A kind of myth

Ink on paper
Truth on skin

A phrase
A start
A crisp attack

As if we can turn the volume down on silent
It’s perfectly wise to feel anger and rage

Do you feel hungry
Always 

We chase the sun
Yearning a full
Shear 
Break 
Down

Still, we can dream up 
As much pretty as we like
She taps her nose
Crawls under the bed
Finds the basket
In which we keep
The remains of what is missing

It is nice
Swimming over the jagged edges of sorrow
Bliss she smiles
Just the two of us
Wrapped up and free

What I do not say is 
Next time
I will not phone it in

She leans into me
Remember that terror you cannot name
I know what she is called

We curl up on the floor
Sleep under the mirror
All in good time 
She says
Holding my hand

I love her

My little story book pilgrim
My friend.

Wednesday, 17 February 2016

Wed

















We make powder flowers 
On the bathroom floor

She loves me
She loves me not

Blood cells move 
Behind my eyes

The crackle of bandages 
Lighting the night

Bigger than niggles
Less than woes

Like washing up bubbles
Soaked in jelly tots

The sun casts a shadow behind us
We are big and small
Light and dark
All at the same time
She squeals

I grimace
A shadow is proof of being
I do not want one

She chews her fingers
Fearful
If I go
She goes 

Everything is strange
Nothing is right

What is your name she asks
I don’t have one
Everyone has a name silly
A-L-I-C-E
She wipes the letters on her lips
Like the sweetest candy
And the highest fix

A name is something to hang onto
Like the string
On a balloon 
My ballon is red
See it flies above me in the night 

It’s not real 
None of this is real
I rub my skin
Sometimes I do not know the terror that engulfs me
All I know is that it will never leave

What a curious union
She giggles
Pretty when the lights are out
I can't disagree 

She loves me
She loves me not

We make powder flowers
On the bathroom floor.



Saturday, 13 February 2016

Valentine





















She sits on the top step
Holding the key 
Lighting the match
Quietly singing
I stay silent
In the basement room
Wishing myself pleasant
Buttercup mints
Leaves
Trees
Gone

Think
Thank
Blank

We all go up in a big bad boom
She skips trips
Down the stairs

Who goes there
Friend or foe

Her fingertips smell like petrol
She is my lovely
My threat
My death 

The syllables come out
Quick fire gun range
Desert blank 
Urban cage

Screech
Squeal
Peal

Is any of this real

Close call
Hit fall

Cold hand 
Brick wall

I tally the cost of language lost

The wait 
The flow

Where are you
She asks
On the swing
In summer 
On the wooden porch
The wind blessing us with kisses
Brushing the hair on the apple tree
Sweet and still
Like the finest dream

Pack your case
Let’s go to that magic place

Happiness is an unexpected gift
I think
As we sink
Up from the basement
Down from the stairs

She is my love
My fortune
My breath

My shiny penny of despair.

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I may not be able to reply to your comments and posts this week - as ever always appreciate your visits.. thank you... 

Wednesday, 10 February 2016

Luck

















We are a mixed puzzle

A book
A phone
A long lost hat

The car sleeps under the black stray cat

How do we know 
We are

Because we have a heart beat 
She whispers
Lubdub
Lubdub

Two little girls in a dunking tub

I have to check
Time must not dangle 

So many rules 
She sighs

If I was a gem 
How precious would I be
She asks
Lying on her side
Hair drizzling over baby bird elbows

I don’t have the backbone to answer

You are cobalt blue 
She squeals
My favourite colour
Forever and ever 

I hug the wall
This is me sober
Want to see me fall

No one came Alice
Only the people in grey suits
Who wrote our story 
With a company pen 

They got it all wrong 
Of course
She smooths her hair 
Tried to make us cheap 
And nasty

We are
A picture 
Of a picture
On a wall
On a wall

A distant star
Circling the moon
But still shining
She says
Quietly
Shh

We drop
Like a penny in the night

He used razor wire 
To staunch the flow of blood
How perfectly silly
She says

The silver warms against my skin
See a penny pick up
A shilling is even better luck

Is that the phone or the moon

We are in a state aren’t we
No
We are feeling

We are
We are 

I hug the wall
This is me sober
Want to see me fall.