i curl into your back and you wear me
like armor into your dreams.

under your hands i turn to water
or iron and then you bend me again.

you say you knew it from the first when
the space between us bit its tongue.

i didn't know it though i ground my teeth
down that night under your name

and spat out all others in my sleep.
i didn't know single-mindedness

til you packed your suitcase and placed
it against mine outside the door.

i didn't know that it could be like this.
a reflection caught by the tail

of you watching me and i see more.
for you i am more. i have to be.

short is the most delicious look
silence is the loudest book
with lips the hungriest food
and night the darkest wildest mood
breathing is the deepest ****
giving in the hottest ****
love is a bittersweet borrowed lie
time is a slowly emptied sigh
deception is the sharpest yet rustiest lance
and rage the slowest, saddest dance
while truth's just polished-up confusion
with words - the slipperiest illusion








- - - - -

for I need my night as much as day
and when it comes, it comes what may

no shy question, no subtlety
the tongue may tie, still it cries out from me

day holds the knife, and oh how bright
but where dreams tear free? the realm of night

so take this hand, step to the dark
when the blade’s pressed close
ever deeper beats the heart




- - - -

blade-wings carve the sky
a knife to oblivion
slicing ever on

eyes tear at the black
pulling each thin thread of light
shadows weave below

I was just walking past
18 months gone by so fast -
she invited me up for tea

and there we were again
dressed like long lost twins
(not again!) - her designer-ripped jeans
comme des garçons striped shirt
my jeans worn through
(life'd dragged me on my knees) yet
all my stripes unearned

this time she made me earl grey as the day
which didn't seem to cool
face to face but not eye to eye we were
mirror images blowing on steam
sisters brothers could've been lovers
but I'd turned my face away

she put on another jug to bubble
I looked straight ahead, (oh god)
already seeing double

ironies usurp courage
adventure scowls unsated
Times New Roman ****
pixels unconsummated
similes sin-taxed for hits
stale nefarious negging
all heros on the page
reality waits begging




- - - - - -