Under the Weather
It is mid-June and
you haven’t seen daylight for quite some time,
haven’t left your bed or felt a faucet’s steady drip on your back, can’t
recall the last time you smiled where it wasn’t on cue
wasn’t it April? was that
the last time the sky was blue before the thunderclap that sent you home
Two children daring each other to touch an electric fence
In winter your muscles fasten together in an icy paralysis. You walk barefoot on the railway – your feet warmed by the rumble of trains. You can feel their vibrato as they approach, shaking the dewdrops on the frost-bound earth.
You hold fast to the sleepers, enamoured by the headlights and the scream of the whistle.
aquarium dreams
tonight I pledge to have aquarium dreams
there will be octopi and axolotl and anemone and eels
they can nibble on blood worms and prawns and peas
taste the ends of my fingers and pieces of cheese