Reading at the Southbank launch of the Bloodaxe anthology, Ten: Poets of the New Generation. November 9th, 2017 at the International Poetry Festival.
Ruby
She’s a roulette wheel loaded against you
A sure-fire bet when you don’t have the stake
A gun in the hands of a man with a grudge
Like a smudge of silver leaf on a blacksmith’s neck
She’s a giggle that turns into a manic episode
An intermittent broadband connection
A delivery between nine in the morning and six at night
Like a bus driver who waits when he sees you running
She’s a garden wall with loose brickwork
A ninety minute wait for a cab on your birthday
A higher than expected energy bill
Like a footballer with a doctorate in theology
She’s an argument with your boyfriend’s brother
A cobra squatting in a meerkat’s den
A hooded teen walking behind you at night
Like a coin without a date stamp
She’s a bit of a laugh that ends up in court
A train that blasts past at your station
A flag at full mast when the queen is dead
Like the difference between a common puffball
and a death cap. Like being alive
published in Butcher's Dog issue 1 2012, Record and Play (Red Squirrel Press) 2013
Bastard
The walk along the Old Forest grounds
had done nothing to slow things down.
She pushes the front door shut,
calls out to the empty house.
She takes the key from round her neck
winds its thin cord around her fingers,
drops it into the metal dish that keeps
things in their right place. Waits.
She hears the neighbours still playing
that same Christmas song that plays
every year. She sits on the third step,
hums along as she loosens her coat,
takes off her knickers, reaches down,
feels the baby’s head.
published in Record and Play (Red Squirrel Press) 2013
How to Avoid Giving Unwanted Advice
Hold your tongue still with your teeth.
Feel the sharp white line press down
until it threatens to draw blood.
Slip into the silences
until your head is submerged
resist the urge to surface for air.
Place your advice in a room of mirrors,
consider it from all angles
as it puts on the finishing touches.
Swallow rhetorical questions whole,
dissolve in stomach acid without reply,
and even then, don't wait for a pause
wait to be asked.
published in Between the Floorboards (ID on Tyne press) 2010, Ink Sweat & Tears 2011
After Marwood published by Ofi Press
Postcard published by Diamond Twig
