now, I won’t open it.
Knife Fight, Glasgow
after David Gillanders
Your head wound was exquisite,
a sheet of red velvet
obscuring your eyes.
Here, the commonness
of household tools turning,
on circumstance, to active
meat in complex hallways,
the alcove of a payphone
where voices make demands
or even pray.
I touched the place your face
should have been, cradled
between the gloved hands
of the nurses’
quiet frame.
You Asked If It Was Something You Said
Last night in conversation, the full frame dislodged, a cloud held
your hair in loose knots as a promise. We woke to a thousand casualties
in Gaza, a place where they are running out of blood.
A computer screen in an empty office tower gave the news, the air
circulation filtering the sound of the cloud’s breath. While I read
Al Jazeera, I wanted the crush of skin against my face, rich with sweat, alive.
At home, I eat simple food, make stiff drinks with my sister
and watch the sealed city sit like a smoking parcel in our kitchen.
No poems like ribbons today.
Snapshot
Marina, her
braceleted
wrist chops
and churns in
the rough barley,
a huge curling. Her
ghost-pale hair
threshed back, drops off
with drift, a slender
obligation of braid,
brush-whipped ellipsis,
gliding into the cut.
Armoury
A dress flatters when unzipped.
I’d ask for that much, to draw the tab down, lay bare
the swan of your spine, the glacial, slackening shoulder blades.
This hotel is powdered latex,
leather look-alike, neon, a nod
to sea or sugar. You took me here
for a two-minute melody anyone could manage,
even in psychedelic fripperies or a mask.
Your gown in party print
against the mirrored headboard.
Watch how it refracts.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
