Loss

Like a cassette
Rewinding.

Go back.
Pause.
Play.

Go back.
Pause.
Play.

Looking for the place.

Another Man's Compost

One person looks at egg shells
Tea bags
Potato peelings
Bread crumbs
Bits of leek, tomato, carrot
Dead flowers, stiff,
Onion skins

And sees rubbish.

Scraps for seagulls to squawk over from spilled bin bags,
Streets smeared,
Summer stink
To high heaven.

But.

Not.

The.

Potential.

Given time.
Heat.
Protection.
A little bit of rummaging.

The promise of rich, crumbling, darkly-latent life.
Ready.
Just
Waiting
To be seen.

Stupid Hissing

It’s not even the start
And I can already feel the cold hand of the past
On my shoulder.

Whispering in my ear
A voice which is all hissy
And persuasive
And stupid.

I like your hands.
I don’t want them to be on anyone else’s neck
Or thigh.

Or your lips
To be pressed deliciously
Anywhere
But on my skin and lips.

“Hissy-hiss-other-women”,
The voice blathers on.

I suppose that’s what they mean by
Baggage.

Separation

Fewer planks of wood in the lounge.
Parma ham.
More confident with spiders.
More sex.

Better sex.

Friends.
Time.
Space.
Flowers.

Expansion.

Louder.
Bigger.
Thinner.
More fluid.

Less certain.

Increased capacity for peace.
New jokes.

Thought.

Yes,
With some crying.

Sometimes.

Half Eaten

Sometimes
It’s like a mouse
Sleeping,
Harmlessly curled up
In some warm bodily nook.

Sometimes
It’s like a snake;
Slowly sinking fangs into flesh,
Indulgent,
Poison seeping up thighs,
Veins treacling,
Heart slowly thickening,
Consciousness
Limping.

Other times
It’s like a dinosaur
Has stomped right up to me,
Glared,
And chomped,
Casual,
Direct,
My torso.

Leaving me
Like two thirds of a piece of toast.

Y'know light switches.

Y’know light switches.

There they are. On a wall.
There’s probably one on the wall of the room you’re in.
Right now.

It’s sitting there.
Quiet.
Square.
Contained.

That light switch
Is minding its own business.

Until
Someone
Comes along
And puts their sticky little mitt all over it.

Fingers
Pressing.

BOOM!

Says the light switch.

HA!

Says the light switch.

SEE MY POWER!

The connections
The electricity
The fizz and tension and wires
Sizzling towards
Illumination.

Now look at that bloody light switch again.