Where lives are saved and lives are lost,
Transparent waves simmering and smoking,
Festering natives shouting 'bon voyage,'
Against the colossal empty carcass of stone.

We were alive, we were one.
Like you said in the sloppy mud,
The surreptitious metal clashing,
Screaming its choiring shout of affirmation.
The deity that strung us by the neck,
Forcing us to choke on our natural *****.

The door has closed.
Let it be heard in a whisper
In the evanescent air.
Like the pairing of two great crashing waves.

I remember that twilight tulip's lip,
The cupid's bow puckered earnestly yet forsaken.

And with our bodies braced
We raise the anchor,
Bearing our scopes far beyond the horizon.
A never ending sail in the wind.

Tweeting thrushes twittering
Above our heads,
A certain thickness about the air
Which fills my lungs with ***** matter.
The heavens opening, scarring my scaled skin.
You talking.

Tulips
Fresh from a plot of
Lazily potted plants,
The stench garrotting me as I walk past,
And just as I do, you appear,
Talking.

I'm at best when I'm resting.
Stop pressing me I need this serenity,
This blank papyrus and
Sea sodded swimwear.
My only memento of you.
Stop talking.

You and I, You and I, You and I,
They said.
Why must they lie and ignore
Your tentative gaze?
My harboured farcical thoughts
Encroaching my mind,
Slowly metastasising through the hollow mould
Which is my body.

The noose lies still on the white-wash table.

We are together again.
Our  names imprinted on a boulder of soft, cold granite,
And beneath the dead tulips
And the heavy mud,
We stop talking.

I knew something changed.
Something that lingered transformed,
An overwhelming surge of clarity and comfort.
With its caffeinated beverages flowing crisply,
It's stone walls radiating warmth and serenity.

My lips shudder at the taste of bittersweet Americano,
A myriad sensations.
It's subtle earthiness,
It's tasteful tinge of brown sugar,
It's smooth transition from the tongue to the oesophagus.

My eyes widen, my hands tremble.
My world has turned upside down,
No, no, upside up!
This sensation is dizzying, electrifying.
I need to shout across these tidal waves of pleasure,
I must scream across the coloured books, the decorative lights.
Nothing can stop me.

I follow your footsteps day to day
Beneath this baby blue silk cloth.
You passed beneath the bridge long ago
And crossed the river,
Skipping along the stepping stones to your heart.
The ecstasy that flourished within you has perished.

Why do you glide like a swift swallow,
Squawking its deathly hum,
Penetrating me to my flesh, beneath my bones
Into the empty matter between.
I remember what you did.

I know who you are.
The river is dissipating and you are
Fading.
No!
Stop there my precious one!
My bittersweet darling, my dove.
Do not govern me, stand by my side!
Let us walk together.

It is done.
It is done now the bloodied knife has fallen.
Your brow is still now, it will not be raised again.
Soon I will be with you but
Never again.

The knife, the knife,
Grab the knife, and run
Run
Run away.
The play has ended, Caesar.
And let slip my uncanny mind
Into the abyss.

You saw didn't you.
Yes, yes.
Her cold stare as obvious as your sunken skin,
The void engulfing you,
You aren't yourself.

Don't move,
The end has already come and gone.
As the moon lights your way to the ocean,
It's fractured even then
In the evanescence of time and space.
Heart racing, don't jump!

A haunted, hollow place inside your skull.
You know of this place,
It's home.
Cry now, don't cry later.

I imagine a starlit night,
Orion staring intently at her
Puckered Cupid’s bow,
Singing treacherous melodies.

Further and further
I sink below these nefarious tides.
Happy natives sending good tidings
And binding themselves to relatives like
A calm embrace.
Further still she calls as
My neck sinks bellow the waves.

As if a lonely café weren’t bad enough
With its awkward barista.
No, no, don’t tell me lies,
It was you that poured that last goblet
Full of wine and drank it all.
Sit and wait, do not make me sign the paper.
Don’t embrace or cover yourself with me.
Do not oppress me with your bended knee,
I want answers!

The spell has been broken and
I am Macbeth.

Three!

Scientists stare at microbes
As we stare at humans and ants,
Sinks beneath the great dimensional wave
That is the cosmos.
Thinner and thinner I become.

Two!

This moment captured and caged,
In this sinking ship,
We’re in the brig now!
Our eyes and ears condensed
And all things.
What are we now?
Little bear? Great bear? Orion? Jupiter?

One!

We were perpetuated by hope.
Encouraged by discovery
But forever glossed over by our
Incompetence and our inadequacies.
In facing death we turned to look up at the stars.
We dared to dream,
And now we dream
Of humans and ants trapped on a sphere
In the great Galactic ocean.

Lift Off!


The space between rocks.