STAY CONNECTED!
Roll up, roll up!
Special deals for all.
Gutted and cleaned
for your fastidious pleasure,
laid out, flesh skinned and pink
raw to open air and ratty teeth.
Roll up, roll up!
Today only, don't miss out!
We can flay you back to feeling,
shatter internal walls to leave you
with screaming babe-like innocence
and pain, oceans and oceans of pain.
ETERNITY
Fingers scrabble against the grey of bitumen,
fumble the chalk, and scrape;
a dry sound to match his homeless smell.
In the way of aged men, he moves slowly,
scrabbles a more certain grip on his arid quill
then puts one stiff knee to the ground.
He pauses, and looks up.
Bright sky is reflected in his eyes,
rheumy but clear, cupped by crows-feet crinkles.
His face falls back to the pavement,
and his ratty locks hide his cheek,
obscuring the muse he holds inside his gaze.
With effort he presses his fingers to the chalk,
an awkward remnant in his gnarled grasp,
and in perfect Copperplate he writes his single word;
years of writing, and all his days
he uses only one word, on footpaths, roads
and driveways, he chalks "Eternity".
A MONTH APART
The moon is half-full tonight,
grown to adolescence
half-bright, half-formed.
My lover boards the plane
with a sure step, doesn't wave goodbye.
(later)
The moon is touching on whole tonight,
a perfect tunnel of light
reaching out across the ocean
spearing into my own eye,
reaching only for me.
My lover is far away
under palm trees, under a different moon.
(later)
The moon is ebbing tonight,
losing itself in darkness,
drowning my purpose,
making redundant my daily watch.
He is far from me, perihelion.
(later)
The moon is new tonight
bringing my heart to my throat.
How time passes so sweetly,
and each day a little closer now.
I walk as a horse walks home,
faster than tiredness,
lighter than air, on love's shoulder.
(later)
The moon approaches half,
grown to apprehension,
half-formed and afraid.
He comes close now,
my empty arms feel a month's anguish.