So goes the light

I want to be with you somewhere 
soft and free, a warm place with good laws 
and irises. I will go backwards
and forwards to get there and if it takes
the wind and the rain out of me I'll
go. I’ll go through your teeth
I’ll ride your breath right into your chest, 
make a village for your heart. Bounce it 
on my lips to keep its beats swift. Sing to it 
through your arteries. Fatten it with dreams 
of gardens and marmalade. Make it into
a continent of stars and wine and sand
that will grow in the night and wash away
come morning. 
                    

There are 
shiny pink 
gums and
a nice 
spongy tongue 
and big
white rocks 
lined up in
long toothy 
blocks there
is a funny
pendulum 
sat above a 
big wide gap 
that hums 
and gulps and
vibrates and 
slaps and I’m 
scared to 
fall in so 
I hold on with 
my hands to 
the spaces 
between 
your teeth
and to steady 
myself I put
my foot 
against
the bump 
of a taste bud

I look up at the roof of your mouth 
and I see stars
                    

Every night the warehouse sinks 
your heart beats through your shoulders
We go a thousand miles above 
the world inside a parchment folder
Turning through the alkaline hours 
on dreams that shrink us small
Your hands curl up like leaves so that
the morning can blaze the hall
A shadow on the wall is a stalemate 
your warm feet a promise 

we are in love 
you’re soft as a peach 
and I am small as a dove
                    

lately, gorgeous and red 
in the face from the beginning. On fire 
and then you go bright red. On fire
for good and stupid. For all your situation 
funnies. On fire as you leavet a bag of ice 
to melt on the counter. As I pick scabs 
and explain my fondness for being 
near the water. On fire as we sit 
and watch the cartoons that our 
cartoons watch and they try to kill each 
other. As we stay alive. As I plughole 
and you witness and we dance with what is 
available to us. On fire as another bin fire
strewsleaves poo bags across the neighborhood
concrete. As the dream believes itself. 
Fire as you stroke the feet on my 
back fire on the night the bag melts 
into a puddle again and leaves us out 
of tea towels again again again 
again on fire all over again you’ve 
been on fire lately. When the ink runs 
and chemicals burn frightening the room 
bright. On fire when you light me up. When 
bleach will do that to a photograph. 

                    

Like strangers 
looking at you when 
you don’t want them to, today 
is inevitable. 
It’s a sweeping light house 
under your skin
a headline act for the cracks 
between the things 
you tell yourself with

Best case scenario 
it has the clarity of a summit. 
The obvious, clean heart 
of a vortex. A third eye 
on your greatest forehead. 
Worst case, it will park 
in the creases of your shirt
and squat creepily 
in your sink, like a toad

When strangers charge 
down the street today 
is in their knees. 
It glides over their tongues 
when they pull out
the restaurant spoon. 
It’s as demanding as screens 
as innocent 
as a cartoon heart
It will wheel you 
through the piss
It will take you home
                    

One dogged night in March
a friend chucked me an egg
I missed the catch, it hit the ground
got yolk all up my leg. 
In the mess I saw my blips
everything I’d missed
my failures cracked out in goop
my mouth an empty fist. Now

it’s very hard to get things down
when the scene is this blissed out
when the rationale jumps up and frowns
the wind just whisks it out. But
every crack is a doorway really
and every crick’s a crook
so straighten that neck and eat the wave - 
the rest is yet to look
                    

Clear             A poem              A story
Simple            in                  a song
Your body         the garden          
A toy             for real
Again             for moving          a leg