love #16: release

You are the rusty nail hammered in.
I am splitting my bark just to dislodge you, prise you loose.

love #15: trial

Over drinks
we reconstruct the end
from all available evidence:
no crime committed
no blame assigned.
The glass fell
outside the window
we broke it ourselves—
I’m surprised it took us this long to realise.

love #14: away

You laugh at
my reckless winter sudsing
and remind me
how long you’ve been gone.
Your half-empty shampoo
offers solace to mine.

Warm and familiar
steam curls up next to the mirror.
A ghost reflection
flicks and twists—
shower curtain
bare arm.

I fall with the water
muscles slack, slinked with hair
slip down the drain and away.

love #13: seven degrees

(i)
Monday
I sneak out for breakfast
because I can’t spend
one more second with you.
Our room is heavy
with your clothes,
your books,
your snoring breath.

Some chemistry pulls me
toward coffee
and the city’s centre—
a survival instinct
barely felt.

(ii)
My fingers
nearly frozen on
pedestrian crossing buttons.
I breathe from
the cloud of breath
of a high-heeled brunette.
Her cheeks flushed
as though
someone has
warmed his hands
upon them.

(iii)
The first minutes
in cafés of new cities,
an unsignposted street corner
near the motel.

Morning condenses
on the windows,
keeping me hidden.
I order simple pastries
and doodle
on the squeaky glass—
my initials and yours
blotted out.
Eat breakfast
quick and businesslike.
Coffee kicks through me
keeps me moving
steps clipping on the pavement.

(iv)
You drink beer
and discourse.
I gaze up
and watch stars
breach the skyline.
The gas flame
of a chimenea
like
a false beacon
flickering
with distance.

(v)
We’re sleeping
economically
in single beds.

(vi)
The first train
on Wednesday
wakes me
groans the words
no sex
and I’m forced to agree.
Stamp to the shower
loud and heedless.

(vii)
Breathe out my bitterness
in small talk
to the café owner
who recognizes my order
but doesn’t know my name.
One more sticky
dusty almond danish,
espresso, and a brief escape.

love #12: grey

her features are
inexact
eroding into
pillow creases
snoring beside him
exactly as she fell.
still as a rock
the excitement
the mutual landslide
dissipates.

he’s shackled
to her heavy body
gutless as prometheus

love #11: show and tell

Sheets rumpled
from slicing me open.
Slick up to your elbows.
You’re put off by my insides
snigger at their pinkness.

Soothed and reckless
I see the truth—
how little you love me
when I’m not looking.

love #10: home

You crush me like garlic
while I smooth my hand
along the ironing board’s
head and hip.
I soften from the heat
leave behind my scent
guff under your fingernails.

Me, pinching creases
from clean linen
and you cooking to your own recipe.

love #9: love poem

teach me the difference
between lust
and exhaustion
and which one leaves
me silent and shaking

teach me the difference
between beard-kissing
and shaved-kissing
and how each kind
has its pleasures

teach me the difference
between shallots
and spring onions
and why I never bothered
to learn it sooner

teach me the difference
between me
and you and me

love #8: epithalamion for mel and nathan

Love does not look down
but casting eyes skyward
finds balance staring
at no fixed horizon.
It is unsteady
and exhilarated
a plunge or a step
taken, unwavering.
You are blind to the ground
fear half-forgotten
now that the object is gone.
Hands stretch to hands
cold-knuckled from the thin air
unnumbing where you fit together.
A kiss that is gravity-less
and your cheeks, your lips,
your breath will escape inertia.

Today is a day
when the rivers will glisten and flash
honeyed with reflected gold.
Your body’s dips and hollows
(aqueous canals of ear,
taut-skinned gut,
throat warm and silted)
dark caves flooded with echoes
saying ‘I love you’ out loud.

love #7: steel

co-dependent
co-efficient
i draw ley lines
over the city
and file magnetic
along them
our simple mechanism
works
closing gaps like a zip