Jeremy Duff: Favorites

Feb 2014 Jeremy Duff

EP Mason

The easiest person to hate is yourself. To loathe yourself in your head. Who is going to disagree with you? Certainly not you. You hate yourself too.

Feb 2014 Jeremy Duff

Secrets Between Your Fingertips and My Tears

Feb 2014 Jeremy Duff

Wanderer

Secrets Between Your Fingertips and My Tears

You lean in close to fathom
The tightly refrained edge of my grief
"Why hold it in?"
Little does he know the cost of that heeling
Eating away
At the joy that used to so easily come
Shhh
We may leave but our echo will remain
I am only human
These bones are just as heavy as your's
When light falls and the day weighs
Stacking the darkness in my favor
I would rather be memorialized in shadow
Then cast in unforgiving light
You're going to lose it, stopping suddenly mid-stride
Breath quicken, heart slam ricochet
With only the hazed memory of where my warmth used to be

I would make sure that you at least would get a proper farewell.

Feb 2014 Jeremy Duff

Lion's jaw

Feb 2014 Jeremy Duff

EP Mason

Lion's jaw

Darling
you may dwell in your castle
your big, empty chamber
you may fill it with diamonds and pearls
you may bathe yourself in the milk of the Gods
and you may rest in the eye of the moon
You may spew riches
and dispose of that opulent and rancid mess
feed it to the peasants
You may greet your subjects in Gold
and kiss your lover in Silver
you may spear down lions for their jaws
and only dance with those in purple
and only sleep with those with silk sheets

Darling
there are no silk sheets in graves
you may lie
and rot
next to the peasant
who ate your week-old
bronze tat
and loved the lion
in the wild
not the jaw on the mantelpiece
and the same green grass will grow above you both
the same roses will spurt from your marble
and their stone
and your bones will both be white and withering
more so than the lion's jaw

Feb 2014 Jeremy Duff

Boys are for kissing

Feb 2014 Jeremy Duff

Portland Grace

Boys are for kissing

I wanted you to need me,
so I slipped into your arms,
and sighed my name in your mouth,
until you did.

I tried to hold onto you,
but my manipulations are sharp
and you shattered.

I was never sad,
only
disappointed
in myself.

I am not
as good
as I thought.
and I might
have needed you
a little bit
too.

Feb 2014 Jeremy Duff

The American Night

Feb 2014 Jeremy Duff

Jim Morrison

The American Night

for leather accrues
The miracle of the streets
The scents & smogs &
pollens of existence

Shiny blackness
so totally naked she was
Totally un-hung-up

We looked around
lights now on
Top see our fellow travellers
~~~

I am troubled
Immeasurably
By your eyes

I am struck
By the feather
of your soft
Reply

The sound of glass
Speaks quick
Disdain

And conceals
What your eyes fight
To explain
~~~

She looked so sad in sleep
Like a friendly hand
just out of reach
A candle stranded on
a beach
While the sun sinks low
an H-bomb in reverse
~~~

Everything human
is leaving
her face

Soon she will disappear
into the calm
vegetable
morass

Stay!

My Wild Love!
~~~

I get my best ideas when the
telephone rings & rings. It’s no fun
To feel like a fool-when your
baby’s gone. A new ax to my head:
Possession. I create my own sword
of Damascus. I’ve done nothing w/time.
A little tot prancing the boards playing
w/Revolution. When out there the
World awaits & abounds w/heavy gangs
of murderers & real madmen. Hanging
from windows as if to say: I’m bold-
do you love me? Just for tonight.
A One Night Stand. A dog howls & whines
at the glass sliding door (why can’t I
be in there?) A cat yowls. A car engine
revs & races against the grain- dry
rasping carbon protest. I put the book
down- & begin my own book.
Love for the fat girl.
When will SHE get here?
~~~

In the gloom
In the shady living room
where we lived & died
& laughed & cried
& the pride of our relationship
took hold that summer
What a trip
To hold your hand
& tell the cops
you’re not 16
no runaway
The wino left a little in
the old blue desert
bottle
Cattle skulls
the cliche of rats
who skim the trees
in search of fat
Hip children invade the grounds
& sleep in the wet grass
’til the dogs rush out
I’m going South!

Feb 2014 Jeremy Duff

It's not a crime

Feb 2014 Jeremy Duff

EP Mason

It's not a crime

So many times I have heard
''It's not a crime to love''
''I love
I love
and there's no law against it''
so then why is it treated that way?
I want him to hold his boyfriend's hand and not
be scared of their words
like handcuffs
I want her to kiss her girlfriend's lips
with her eyes closed
for once not looking around the busy Sunday streets
at who is staring
I want their bodies to blend
just like everyone else's
free from laws
free from prohibition
and hatred, disgust
simply for gender
because hey
look
they both wear makeup
or they're both in dresses
they met whilst playing on the all-male football team
when they were born
their baby showers were themed blue
when really, gender is not a colour
just like love is not a gender
and no love-banning law
will make love a criminal act

It's not a crime
to think their skin is made of constellations
it's not a crime
to feel warmth in your bones when they're lying beside you
it's not a crime
to kiss them with passion so intense
it makes your own heart fleet to your stomach
And I don't want to live in a world
where the crime is not in the bloodied fist of the attacker
or the cruel words spat from their mouth
but in the man with the red river gushing from his nose
simply because he gave his heart to another man

Feb 2014 Jeremy Duff

i shall drink and sup with him

Feb 2014 Jeremy Duff

mark john junor

i shall drink and sup with him

things surface in the darkness
fair and foul alike
from these dark waters
i have swam and wept these ashen waters
when the fevers of fear and sadness
have swept over me drowning me in
their hostile dreams
when the dark overwhelmed me
when the worlds rough hand has toppled the
ivory towers of greed and lust

i found refuge in this darkness
where your face need not be your own
where skill with pen or sword achieve the same ends
but these long years on the narrow mile
tilling the dead soil have only harvested shadows
i wish for better crops to be sown which to
set the paintbrush of my pen upon
so i stand here at the gap in the breezeway
and step tentative to the light
to meet favour and fortunes
or death and shadow

should i meet death
i shall drink and sup with him
break unleavened breads and regale him
with fanciful tales of the far east
distract him while you slip away
to plant the seeds of our hopes
or wreak the havocs of our dooms
i shall be as a companion of this mad reaper
i shall be as counsel and cage to his worried mind
keeping at bay the ravenous hounds of his delight
and feeding the crying children of his fears
for are we not all children of light
and we should not turn aside this chance to bend
the fates in our favour
against this strong foe
should i meet death and live to tell the tale
i shall feast this night
and drink the strong ale