i am obvious to you                        
a glaring stowaway
            on your beauty feast
  spending   perilously  oblivious
to where this warmth is spreading

i watch you counting yourself out                                         
                    courting little pets of body-parts
putting pennies on the trinket shelf            
talking with wending wordage            
                 about those gruff fellows
who've been pig-holing    about your dwelling

that day  you manage a back window  
                                           and escape                            
masquerade yourself  as a gentleman
but they sniff at your aromas       
              these men in crude season
they circle you hinge-hipping
as you fleet the roads and fields                        
and evade  into the dappling woods
"come on out  we have you surrounded"                              
(you say  they say)
you stay  crossed legged   a monk among trees
(these pleasing defenders)                                

you take off your dress  and string it
            from one of these trees
you dole yourself out                        
little pets for the undergrowth

           you offer a curled shrew
from the space   your kneecap once
                          occupied

you droop your warm left breast
and drop a beast from that cove
(a plump vole clambers  fresh and
                        disorientated)

you plug one arm into loose soil
                   and the fingers snake root
separation at the elbow                
              and branches sprig out

both your thighs   animate as fox cubs
your ***** leaves from between                  
                         and slinks under some ivy

your hair fiddles loose and travels off
in currents of breeze
before flitting into little finches

your back crumples with fungal looseness
your head weighs low                              
             and the jaw lumps off
shuffling   undecided on its form

your forehead bows  to kiss the earth
and your face scatters  a gaiety of insects  and spores

                  all arts patterned about
your pile continues   in this mattering manner
collapsing efficiently    
you've canonized in nature                    
now you’re abroad  mature and freed          
to tell your friend this story
a spirit  without brag of these neat powers
one with mother glory

within a coma of mouth   crept at by thieves      
hooked away the woe-ing jewels of his teeth
his face  loaved in upon the calcified essentials
(soft claw  featured  like a boxing glove)
   and the desert reclaims                                              
          ­  live mummification of the whole arresting body
proclaimed a priest-ful stickman

other realms visit this hospital bed
mothering away gifts in honour
bowing whilst backing   they withdraw
                                         his vitality

                               - peaceful veils

in her eighties                                                         ­ 
motoring in wisdoms and whimble
beddened by stroke subtle effects  
                     and an unlucky stumble
agilely un-humble                                                    
willing to poach after life    put in the work
willing to comb back in   old welcome habits
revive living  through past youthful revisits

02/05/25

I’ll see it   once I believe it          
        the holy bell is rung
           I’ll feed myself   when I deceive myself
         the holy well is deep

04/05/25

i'll draw breath  when breath is given  
                         the holy song  remains unsung
   i'll free myself  when i defeat myself
                        the holy word  bites its tongue