Nobodies Supposed to Find it

We had so little, yet we had so much:

Thunder and lightning at the lightest touch.

-JOHN M. RIDLAND

"there are regrets,"

he said under his breath

as the lights shutout

and she curled into him like a leech.

"call me afterwork"

he said with a smile

hugging then pivoting

away from her door

"say hi to him for me"

he said then waved

as the distance between them

flexed

"goodnight"

he thought as he fell asleep

while she still sat at the window

watching the car-lights

My Head Can't See My Feet

well you stay up all night
pills and coffee
you keep pushing yourself just to get ahead
and you knock so loud, but nothing will answer
just a waste of time, but you won't admit

-The Donnis Trio

sight subjected

cool but hard headed

sleep and slim living

rotten misgivings

A Great Sense of Scale

Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings- Jane Austen

I sit with the hallway light

Spending time loosely

As this linear tumble

Collapses into itself

How many parts are there?

Split at a minute decision

My voice echoing faintly

As when true sounds are absorbed

Into a dream

We were in the rain

Either here or somewhere else

I can feel the aching pull of memory

Even if it isn’t fully mine

I do not think I have been anywhere

Other than right here

Life divided into

A million movements

Independent

And alone

That Which Scares the Birds

White weather, chalk and basalt,

puffins, fuchsia and history shot

through with particles

of recogniton: this one

wetted down with petrol then

set alight, that one taking

forty rounds, this other

found eleven years later in a bog.

In the station house, imaginary

maps, smoke chased by wind, a registry

of arrivals, the logs of ghost

ships and a few prison

diaries written on tissue paper.

-CAROLYN FORCHÉ

My friends cuddle on couches

fixated

as the end of the world transpires

somewhere else.

The last image seen

before death

is rarely hopeful

Desire Skins

Sometimes I think I was born backwards. You know, come out my mum the wrong way. I hear words go past me backwards. The people I should love, I hate. And the people I hate...- Effy

Everyone drifts into their own microcosms, they absorb the scenery. They break off into pairs, they sedate themselves, they wander through faces waiting to keel over in a daze.

There is only so much talk to tell of, only so much slime to spew. You take it in, you forget why you are here, and then finally the entire universe, tonight, comes smashing shut.

and there is not much

Gatherings and stories

the truth is i never let them see just how much it devastates me- Phil Dumphy

there are measurements of time less stable than the floorboards

a simple stomp shattering alignment

making moments timeless