I quite like the virginity of a fresh notebook
the way my wrists and palms drag across its leaves
breathing life between lines in pink magic marker or the severity of red ballpoint
I like the prickly practical meticulousness of a shopping list:
a dozen eggs
one pineapple
one bag of fresh spinach
one bag of English muffins
one bottle of dish soap
I like the tender impressions of curlie cues and firty cursive
communicating endearments placed on counters such as:
TAKE OUT THE RECYCLING YOU LAZY OAF ******* <3 XOXOXO <3
I enjoy the audacity of a wandering doodle
meandering
cartwheeling
hopskotching
between
and under and over
indices

and spaces
between shopping lists and death threats
i enjoy the lingering ghost of prose shaped caverns
carved onto seemingly empty sheets that carry on for pages
until they fade like whispers into an evanescence
I crave the obnoxiousness absurdity of a to do list
daring me to take a day off from procrastination
until tomorrow
call Gramma
rent due on the first of the muuuuuuuunth
take the GRE
update resume
be awesome. like a boss.
most of all
I love the pain and joy of a poem
the way it slowly leaks from heart to mind to hand to paper
staining
spaces
urgently
faster than muses whispers
barely escaping onto lines
prolific terrific poetry
sporadic spacious atrocious poetry
I croon over the denial of the last page of a beat up notebook
the way the paper hangs onto spirals haggard
littered with stringy remnants of lists and reminders and death threats and poems and goodbyes

(20 minute poetry)

11am
tube is jacked
packed to the rafters
no sound of laughter

only the dismal wails as
we go down the rails
on the trail we have travelled
before.

I'm stood in the aisle
surrounded
by a perch full
of people
a pike load of tenseness
that waits to explode.

jeez
this road keeps on
getting  tougher
Why should I suffer it?
why not opt out of it?

But I am bound to it
a dog in the pound to it
gnawing away
as it too
gnaws at me

one day I'll be free of it
if only to sit and spit or
whittle some wood
into pegs.

Legs are giving me
gyp
tripped over the case on the floor

did I give that person what for

ha
she took not a blind bit of notice

and just flew into the seat
I was eying
she being firty years younger than I

I want to cry.

Is a vote no a no vote or a vote to remain,
I leave her with that note
hangin'