concrete castles, brick battlements,
chimneys billowing black smoke.
sky, leaden and forever dull;
this is the city of the guls.

perched upon red brick walls
and slated rooftops
they unleash their cries of battle
and dive, strafing as they fly;

gutting wheelie-bins, squabbling
over human trash and muck.
this is treasure to the guls,
their feathers diseased and their

necks sporting plastic trophies.
they ****** from grubby human hands
and swallow all they can;
their gullets hold no guilt or shame

for the human filth called 'man.'
the guls know their city: every cranny
and every nook. they have always ruled
from their royal perches:

ruthless, ***** and proud. they look
upon human men with beady eyes
as they leave humble offerings,
and they cackle

chorusing with their high-pitched
squawks. for humans are
mere pests
among those mighty guls.

i see you, grave burrower,
from across the churchyard.
pointed ears, alert - afraid?
can you hear me breathing?

i know, grave burrower,
i know where you hide.
you hide under cracked stones
where decaying bodies lie.
i see your nose twitch, grave burrower,
can you smell the death?

your garden is bountiful, grave burrower,
it’s a beauty to behold.
how did you get it so beautiful -
are their roots cradled by bones?

i wonder if you see them, grave burrower,
smell them, feel them;
the spirits of the buried.
do you know something about death
that we don’t?

i know you see me, grave burrower,
from across the churchyard.
your wide eyes see in every direction.
can you see me staring?

fingertips tapping upon
translucent glass.
blurred skin on the opposite side,
pink, pressed up blotches of
arm and leg,
lip and ear,
hair and head.

alone on the other side,
lack of colour and lack of light.
watch them through the see-through wall,
just the swing of a bunched up fist
could break the fall.

the fall of light within the room,
the dim sound of laughter
from the other side,
the lack of voice that resides

on this side.
waiting is silent,
solitary in a cell of glass confinement.

an hour, another,
more time slips past,
when the room gets darker
so does the glass.

sometimes wish my skull was hollow,
sometimes i think it is.
brain replaced with pansies,
flourishing from liquid dreams.

face blank; staring into
unfocused air.
cursed with a sleeping brain,
blessed with its craftsmanship.

memories caught on tape.
scenarios rolling smoothly;
every moment, invoked upon personally.

worries creep in like Japanese knotweed -
can’t ever get rid of it all.
most of all, thoughts like shattered glass
make me bleed from unusual places.

sometimes wish my skull was hollow,
sometimes i think it is.
feel like i exist more in my head
than i do here.

wish the waves
moved like your mouth;
speaks to me
like the crash of water
upon the shore.

drunk on you
like water to wine
and i watch your words form
in the waves.

i cast my soul into the air -
let my mind carry it to a
familiar land that
only i can envision.

here, but also
somewhere else.

i am always caught somewhere
in between.