Bobbing to a swaying gait,

Torch light bounces at the edge of the world.

Laughter and larks hushed like the shushing waves,

As we crumple daisies and kick the tops off mole hills.

Home is only a field away,

But in the adjusting night, sleeping undercover never seemed so
surplus to requirement.

Clear skies, ***-bellies,

A watery film between the heavens and earth make freckle impressions on the sky,

Blemishes on perfect tone but it's all the more beautiful for it.

Deep indigo, emerald green, pillar box red then bed.

Zips bid the outside world goodnight.

Goodnight to hedgerows and gorse and guide ropes.
Goodnight rabbit warrens and linnet nests and bog asphodel.
Goodnight puffins and the minky whales and the surf.
Goodnight salty hair, goodnight cold noses, goodnight.

I’ve never listened to Kate Bush.
I was frightened of her emotions,
The way her voice mimicked violin strings
And the creature who thrashed wildly like a rope unlatched from the mast in a storm.  

I’ve never listened to Kate Bush.
I didn’t want to see the power and talent
In someone so young when I had actively
Done everything under my control to
Squash my own and keep it hidden.

I’ve never listened to Kate Bush because she didn’t make herself small and that intimidated me.
She is a spider watching a world of flies,
Spinning and spinning pearls and lace
That is so tender but steely in certain lights.

I’ve never listened to Kate Bush, but today I will try.

I loved you once.
It wasn’t even that long ago, there was sunlight and warmth when I stroked your hair and neck and honey on your skin. Running through gardens, thickets, up mountains and down trees; you were the siren song for my ship of untameable sailors, not casting an eye back as we wrecked on the rocks.
I loved you once.
I left my friends to the colours of the night as I took you to our home, soothing and calming as you screamed in the cab. Double lenses don’t block out the betrayal I committed against you, the laughing tongue or the spiders who whisper to your finger tips.
I loved you once.
You drew a line down your stomach and peeled back to show a space perfect for just me. I lived and breathed you, working inside to become the twin you were never meant to have. I saw through your eyes. I felt through your skin. I dreamt your dreams at night.

I loved you once. And once was enough.

You don't know your worth
And that depresses me.
He teaches you about time signatures,
But you still can't sing to a beat
You're jumpy in the smoking area
When a drink is put in your hand.
You smoke **** found in your hallway
Because you don't want to drink and get fat.
He took your shoes in a fight so you wouldnt leave,
And you clawed at his chest in front of silent pets,
Who shake and cower now when we come round.
Your flat is no home, sodden floors and unpaid rent

Silence echoes round her
Making her tinnitus audible.
It smacked at walls,
A flat,
B sharp.
Chiming.
Chiming.
The little girl next door had a throat infection.
She was in the choir,
Singing for the night.

Raspberry pip boy lingered and hung around,
He was sweet, but with a tartness that juiced up your mouth,
He flowered in Spring, and swelled my heart up through Summer,
And I plucked him, and I ate him, and I begged for another,
But as I chewed up, my heart slid down my back,
As I was gulping down raspberries my tooth had cracked,
The raspberry pips had sunk deep and rooted
In between my poor teeth, how I hollered and hooted
"RASPBERRY PIP BOY ISN'T AS SWEET AS YOU THINK,
HE STAYS FAR TOO LONG, I'M STAINED BY HIS INK.
I CAN'T WASH HIM OUT, BELIEVE ME I'VE TRIED,
THAT RASPBERRY PIP BOY HAS JUST RUINED MY LIFE!!"
A former tooth model, my contract was lost,
To that Raspberry Pip Boy, his seeds, and tooth rot.

Kiss my throat,
and taste the words
I long to say to you.

Our brains kissed before our lips could,
My heart yearned before I understood,
We’d already spoken before we had chance to,
When we met, I was surrounded by you.

**** getting kisses for breakfast,
I want them for lunch and tea.
I don’t ever want you,
To have to miss me,
Because that means that I’ve left you,
If I’ve left you then you’re alone,
And that’s not what I want,
My lost pebble in the foam,
                                                       I want sunshine.
I want cold smarting my nostrils,
And setting it’s embers alight,
Deep in my chest.
I want to be under a string of stars
That glow
To the pulse of my heartbeat,
From thousands of years ago.
I want nettle stings on my thighs,
I want mud on my hands
I want you to look at me always in that way
when you brushed off the ***** bloodied sand.


                                     I never washed my shoes after that.

I want to eat peaches and cream off your thighs,
Have I ever told you that?
Well, that’s what I want to do.
On a lazy Sunday afternoon,
When we are watching something weird
Before the Channel 5 news
Cruises through, like a liner,
And disturbs the World’s Worst Hurricanes.

I want dribble the cream down
To the tops of your knees
And watch each droplet coat,
Like a new skin,
Milky and new and thick.
Then I’ll reach for my tin opener,
Peach slices, neat, from the nearest Co-Operative
Arranged like humps of a lizard
Once believed to exist.

You'll let me, won't you?
You with your hair,
And your nails
And your laugh.
I want to eat peaches and cream off your thighs,
Have I ever told you that?