"Alex IV"
Your hands fell in
Lost their shape
Cloudy white
Smoke water
Trills & swells
(Casting out & breathing in)
Seeing Alex on the side of the pond
Stood above the moss covered rocks
In suit and hat, cigarette and smile
Picks a berry from the stark bare branch
And slides it through his clasped lips
Till it bleeds down his chin
Looking curious, looking strange
(Breathing out & hiding in)
Something unfamiliar about what I used to know
Varied, unusual, I’m not quite sure.
It’s frightening, really.
"The Dark in Callow"
............
There are cracks in an old house to let in the cold
The wind’s howl to keep them alive
Fevers to keep us in our beds
While breakfast always stales and cools
Set tables and no mention
Empty halls carrying no echo
Just dark walls and dark shadows
Curtains are suffocating
So sleep with your eyes open…
Down the spiral stairs to midnight tea
Murals of menace once simplicity
Photographs of family become disturbing
Their frames of thorns pricking your fingers
Collapse into the living room
Till you bled out in the rocking chair
Thinking about what you had forgot
(As the fire dies out)
& the wind howls.
