Then suddenly,
You became a stranger.

hmm, i don't normally laugh like
that but when i see that picture of
you it makes me chuckle in a way
that i only do when i genuinely love
something, and so far those things
only include my dog and you, you're
both dorks, maybe that's why i love
you, and then i sit on my bed  
looking through some other
pictures i have of you and i chuckle
some more because i am genuinely
in love, and then i think of those
times we just cuddled and didn't
care what the others think and i try
to imagine that but here on my
bed, my dog keeps looking at me
chuckle, he doesn't understand
feelings, his only feelings are very
happy anxious tired and concerned,
do dogs feel love like we do?

Your love hurts me. It is a love for
the unconventional story that
destroys our clichés and destroys
my heart. How can I be heartbroken

if I don’t have a heart? Take a
knife and take a life. This
conceptual artistry is no use if it
ignores and degrades another.

Trumpets and guitars flank the
avenue to your satisfaction. You
briefly travelled on mine then
stumbled back to yours when

another called you there. You’re
making me bombard myself with
question marks. You look at the
character count and think again.

It is the aftermath that is of most importance.
The moment where they take their hand and slide it up around their own breast.
Their mouth slightly agape in a moment of
Relief? Ecstasy? Guilt?
There is no word for this feeling.
And then they take their hand further up and ruffle their own hair.
Not too gently but not too roughly;
A swipe.
End to end.
They lay there in solitude.

1981

They came in like diseased eagles; mutated
forms of those they wore on their chest and
with the change once again in the weather,
the ZOMO swooped in to quell what was
‘wrong’, what would bring them down. They
run in the streets as well as the miners,
running for different reasons and different
aims. I look down, out my window and see
the army helmets littering the street like rats.
            Police.          Rats.
I could no longer see a difference. My father
went to work that morning. I clutch my doll
knowing the chance of seeing him again is
            Miniscule.   Poor.
There is no more cereal in the cupboard;
there is no more cereal in the shop; there is
no more shop. The ZOMO set it on fire when the word

                          Solidarity

appeared in the window.
“We are closing the border for the safety of the People”
            Incorrect.     Unjustified.
For the safety of You, the Elite.
“Nine killed in mine shooting”
Which side?
Only the ZOMO carry guns.
            Fascism.       Communism.
I could no longer see a difference