UNDER
Was weighted down
now soaring keen as arrows
over suburban valleys
laid out like graves for
the living shoving swollen
feet into shoes labelled
infinite resignation
turn on the gas
we burst into life
at once all at once
your dreams might come true
truer than the sky
than the secret lie
you told yourself
in order to survive
they smile back
rest assured you
are loved in return
your spot here is validated
the seat is taken
FRIGHT NIGHT
I needed to shock my Self out of anxiety
Running off to plunge into cold water
The first cry of the day from the child two doors down
Is like the dawn of creation
Builders hammer out in chorus
Sheets of green parakeets fly off at once
Sounds merge like the elements in a Feldman score
Rubbing up against each other in the dark
In a restored church we sat
In silence suspended from steel beams
On a Saturday getting dark earlier now
Intense meditation from acts of small delicacy
Provoking rough storms of thought
Hovering in the architrave
Thickening grey black clouds over Balfron
We were young we are younger still now
Fuck sex fuck everything that moves.
WITNESS JEHOVAH !
They knock at the door it is
Their mission but not mine to receive
The poorly produced leaflet
Of time worn aphorisms that don’t really work
For most people on this street
Who are mainly Muslims or don’t care
Or are lost and found
Who have not addressed the conscious task of uniting
Finitude with infinity to forge an expression of the Self
That is compatible with the hostilities of a warming biosphere
Flex the bionic muscle make haste while the sun shines
The window cleaner is here again
Rejoice in God’s love
If you can
It is free.
Truth talks in tongues
Light moves through time
Don’t think too hard
About what you haven’t got
It never goes away
The memory of being born
Is no more real
Than today’s headlines
About how the economy
Grew by 0.1 %
High summer in Leyton
The bins stink
Of rotting fruit
The sun bores down
Mercilessly
Gnomecore
Greet the day like a warrior
Elastic coated hard faced
Driving a truck that’s as tall as a skyscraper
Looking down navigating the roads
Genesis was there with some others
Pass the batons choke on smoke
Face caked in defiance plastered all over
Protesting our liberty
Coagulating crimson crust forms around the mouth
Puffing fury sputters
Lurching and leering
Fabulous folly in an orchard of rotten fruit
Must we fixate on the distillation of hate
Can we not just forage for fun
Like we used to when
We were stupid and young
Full of idiot joy
Rolling in the hay of our uncertainty
Without a single care
In the roly-poly world
Now we must walk blindfolded through
Liveable lives as if on a tight rope
Which threatens to snap
Alligators snap at our heals
To sustain our dreams beyond the anxious
Garden path we line our hearts with sun baked aquatic ornaments
Snails climb the back of a faded plastic mermaid
Who smiles demurely in a cheap elusive way
How many winter frosts have those forgiving breasts endured
The tangled netting folds into the hollow of the pond
A naughty gnome flashes ignominiously
Worms wriggle effortlessly selflessly
Knowing their purpose is to wriggle
We dig in short of brain cells
Hard consciousness breathes against the time
This field craft of ours
Lies across the day
Backs on fire
Lost in the flex of bone and muscle.
POEM FOR PRYNNE
