Gripping ***** locks
knotted to his scalp,
she kicks him to the road.
Glass bottle bits scrabbling
under his fingernails;
he yelps, dragging away.

Their pressed flower daughter
clings to the soot-stained wall.

She tiptoes his nape
into the pavement,
drawing a gag and gurgle
bubbling out of his throat.
******* pull his nose,
resting his teeth on the curb.

An incisor plinks to the girl’s feet.
She hugs it as close as a home.

Above the treading commuters, surveying,
you giggle.

Tiny flurries hopping rod to bar to antenna
making sure to be heard

among bus honks and train squeaks,
calling high.

Trilling like typewriters in the satellite dishes
that quiver undertalon,

tapping and flitting around brothers and sisters
of feathered energy.

I don’t know what you are but shades of beak,
blurs of tail,

fluid shards of chatter bursting skyward.
It rains, but you stay and laugh.

A poem read in the style of Ted Hughes as portrayed by Daniel Craig in the film* Sylvia.

Stop standing in the middle of rooms, Sylvia,
it’s ridiculous.

Stop staring wistfully out of windows, Sylvia,
you’re wasting your life.

Stop putting your hair down like that, Sylvia,
you look more unhinged every day.

Stop mumbling about bees, Sylvia,
it’s not healthy.

Stop ripping up bits of paper, Sylvia,
you’re making it messy.

Stop talking to that old man, Sylvia,
he doesn’t look right.

Stop burning all the clothes and books, Sylvia,
it’s not good.

Stop baking all those cakes, Sylvia,
they’re strange.

Stop being really still and staring, Sylvia,
it’s scaring the kids.

Stop waiting up for me, Sylvia,
you need to sleep.