Taliesin

Taliesin Apr 2019

Sparklers and orange bloom
flowers that only shine at night
and wake in the dawn with light and furious colour
like the fourth of July, crackling steak on metal
smoke and seeping juices, screaming meat
        rare, just as you like it, on this, our independence day
       (everybody cheer) or was it the eleventh?
       I forget such things now and then
       surely, it's the eleventh for them over there, playing in the sandpit
       and the eleventh hour, no less. Tell me
       did you see the game?

#politics #war #death #people #fear #celebration #america #communism #peace #party

Taliesin Mar 2019

Sunday Morning

Enfield punches the ground, wheels throw up muddy rainbows
from where they sank with the rain. The rider, some fresh young college thing,
flinches as it ricochets off his goggles, then unsteadily pulls away
wrestling with this strange machine. The old blokes laugh
with their propane cookers and badger-stripe beards, slick
with bacon grease and spit. Outside the beer tent
a kid fingers an old blues tune on a scarred and beaten acoustic.
Coins thrown into an old railway cap, her grandfather’s
smile golden in the sunrise.

#motorcycles #rally #age #time #somber #hopeful #death #people #life

Taliesin Jan 2019

The Summer Child

I saw you, the summer child
lying in a bathtub filled with stars
while clouds spread through water.
Reddish, pinkish lips stood out
on skin the colour of pollen, ash
spreading, staining water.
The stars I learned were razor blades
I cut myself as I pulled you out
and ash slipped through my fingers.

Midday come early on Sunday morning
you should’ve seen the basket that they tossed you in,
covered with roses, perfumed and veiled
you would’ve liked my speech, I hope.
You would’ve liked his eyes.
He’ll worship you, I know.
He’ll make a pilgrimage
every Sunday that would make a novice blush
in envy, but for love
he’d follow you, his angel
all the way down with communion
‘till he’s sick, I hope
you’re proud.

#death #relationships #funerals #anger #love #angels #suicide #people #sad #mother

Taliesin Jan 2019

Haiku: The Music Box

Solemn music box
Singing heart of wood and wire
Bought to play for her

#love #music #relationships #people #haiku #short #sad #melody #breakup

Taliesin Jan 2019

Waiting

The sick green lights are off.
The takeaway was eaten
hours ago it seems.
The bottles are half empty.
The hourglass half full.
The clock is reading: TWO AM.
The movie is boring, she paces
across the room, crushing wrapping paper beneath her feet.
Her lover is upstairs, sleeping soundly,
she will leave before the week
is up, and the moments…
Every second a knocking.
Every minute a nail.
There's some baileys on the mantelpiece
it tastes strong and long and sweet.
She turns the fairy lights back on
and basks in Christmas Day.

#christmas #love #loss #ldr #alcohol #time #relationships #people

Taliesin Jan 2019

Haiku: Forest in spring

Electric snakeskin
Draped, casting green-grey shadows
Over the pine trees

#forest #nature #surreal #surrealism #trees #technology #screens #haiku #contrast #spring

Taliesin Jan 2019

The Flower Girls

See the flower girls go by
holding petals up to god
holding hands before the lords
and shouting out “come buy”.
they dip their pens and write in pollen
they offer crimson roses
for a fiver, see them
take a knife and form the petal
into the perfect, imperfect shape
of a star.

See the crowds that gather round
and coo and cry in awe
at such beauty and such artistry
see them cheering at the sound
of dripping life from dripping fingers
slick and
wet and
red.

for a fiver see them
the maddened flower girls
holding hands before the lords
and shouting out “come buy”

#abuse #prostitution #children #innocence #evil #people #madness #flowers #society #politics