Phantom Pain

You said something
and something somehow
broke.

Words bruised me weak
and so I stepped
aside.

I fold into myself
abandoning you
softly.

And yet, you remain.

Fazed

I am sorry,
I am slipping

Do not take my silence
Correction: Do not take my silence amiss
Do not take anything for granted

Do not mind me

as your eyes fuse
with the desert sun
far away.

Winter has come
with a vengeance,
freezing my laughter.

The blizzard has turned me brittle
and I write myself out
till I go blank
beneath the black sky.

Husk

A mouth
twisted by pain
curls around its lies,
cut lips bleed
reassurance.

Experience
shutters the iris
with wit,
keeping in
the shadows.

Chitinous propriety
holds the frame.
Inner flame sunk
onto itself,
growing cold.

Realistically...

Masked
vulnerability
lightly dances
round the truth
and grimly closed
minds and eyes
laugh at romance
as cowardly pragmatism
hides behind
impracticalities.

Only now and then
a cruel spasm.

Inside

Hot tears stab
paper eyelids
and slash them
into tatters -
acrid avantgarde
heralding
the conflagration
in her ribcage prison.

An inmate torn
by unheard screams
breaks open
in agony
beneath her own smiles.
Hopes congeal
in the blue depths
of glacier shadows.

London NW2

Multiple cracks
in the suburban pavement
cross my path
with forlorn irregularity.

Hidden behind
bland facades
hunkers the reality
of jumbled lives.

Exotic fish caught
in a common bowl,
living in castles
marked by ruin.

Like The Sun

Words hit my ear
like sunlight
on a forest path -
a smattering
of warmth
that dances
with the wind.

I listen quietly,
still as a
basking snake -
coiled warily
under the heat
of a yellow,
indifferent sun.

I turn toward you
like a sunflower
to the sun -
the movement
thoughtless,
instinctive,
helpless.

You are like
sunlight and
I am the earth -
it takes but
a cloud to
hold off
your warmth.

Like This Post

Persuasion

Striking camp
I fold myself
into a lump.

Letting you spin
your silver web
I follow numbly
at your heels.

Walking home
I strip away
your tangled
principles.

I stretch a line
and rebuild
myself.

The Town I Love So Well

We walk
underneath
ragged rainshowers,
the sun
gold
in the window panes.

Knitted shamrocks
on rugby scarves
carry
the smell
of the black stuff
and excitement.

A cabbage leaf
tumbles
across the pavement,
and meets
the Irish Times
in the gutter.

Acid

I watch
your lips curl
with bitter commitment
and he makes
my toes curl
with impulsive joy.

Torn with
impractical ties
I twist my heartstrings
with acidic
impossibilities.

Your words
are velvet
in my brittle silences
and his touch
is musical
on my silent skin.