It's Still Life

Blowing Through Skagen I’ve been to Skagen. Once. I was young. Seems like yesterday. There was grey gritty sand blowing down the street. Danish flags snapping the air, fringed edges, flagellated by wind. We walked the beach. Licked strawberry ice cream, and chewed grit for several days after. Stayed in a hotel straight out of…

It Put Me Right Off Chicken Forever A man on the street is asked, What’s the first thing you’ll do when lockdown ends? Go the KFC, he says, and get me-self a tub of chicken. And the reporter says, Oh. Okay. Well, what else? And he says, Next? ermm, a 24 count Chicken Nuggets with…

Through an Old Window I was born in rainwater, with clothespins sewn in my pockets. I was a burden and a blessing. I was air drifting in old windows, and I was the passing of that century when fishes and loaves were born in a roadside kitchen.     Remixed text from Written by Himself…

Are You Waiting for Me Sunrise seeps through the slats of the fence. Shakes the leaves into dancing silhouettes. Shuffles shadows like playing cards. We all fall down. My ear against the pillow. Heaven fills the other. Thunder rolls — all those souls are clapping. Are you waiting for me in heaven?      What…

More Than A Voice A Trill. A B-flat shrill. There’s a blackbird in the laurel bush. Sing to me your birdsong. Blackbird with an orange beak warbling to the world. Here. There. Everywhere. I hear your voice over the traffic, the dog’s bark from next door, the girls playing up the street, the ice cream…

Where the Story Took Her I once heard of a girl who was so high above us that she was her very own bright moon. Her face was her pride, and her laughter star-sparkling. I heard that she was all legs and luxury, lips like plums, and eyes of lavender-lilt. She wore pastel-pink shorts, and…