Inside my underwear I thought
A red flower had fluttered in,
And stuck itself there like sap.

Inside my underwear I thought
I had spilt a spoon of strawberry jam,
It felt so sticky on my fingers.

Inside my underwear I thought
A crimson blob of sea anemone
Had swum on out of me globosely.

Turns out it was only blood,
Only blood, only blood
I wasn’t even frightened
Even when it started hurting
I’ve always found it pretty
Growing pools of tulips
Inside my underwear.

Cold hands
Wait for yours
Fingers like lost icicles
Waiting for the thaw

Empty spaces
Blank mind traces
Of what I could once do
Wonderful descriptions
Unfinished stories
Of children running
From banal dangers

New depths of mental pain evoke
Change in me
How did that child think?
I can’t find the words
Or remember

The grapple for more adult structure
But simply lack the
Vocabulary
Once proud of a sentence
Now every letter is saturated with
Insignificance

Fire-flecks and sunsets settle in your eyes,
Chocolate dust like copper rust, my heart replies,
Love within that globe of iris, so, so bright,
They glow in my light.

Cinnamon on winter nights, they hold me tight,
Autumn crunch on golden leaves, they love me right,
Maybe they have cast a spell, which I can't fight,
They glow tonight.

Why do you look at me
like that?
Despite the pain I cause you.
Am I your cyanide?
A cold shot to the head?

Why do you touch me
like that?
Carefully.
We look after our sharpest knives
with delicacy.