Wednesday, 31 October 2018

New Build

One foot, then the other
jerking through the sludge.
Scanning the darkening water
while fireworks explode
in impotent memory of anger.

Low flight skims the surface.
Sky lighter than the oil below.
All the shades and sculpture of the clouds
has become flattened into silhouette.

The world is disappearing before me
as a tiny lion hunts in dying bramble
scenting still smaller things,
hiding in the straw of forgotten summer.

The lights if the horizon coming into focus,
some bleeding down the foreground,
like an oil paint reflection of the actual.
Stillness caressed by distant traffic
and the phasing, persistent wail of a siren.

Tuesday, 9 October 2018

A terrifying story.

Earth moving
slower than I,
sliding and crushing.
Forcing upwards. 
Fragments worn, 
waterborne,
forming again 
According to current.
I fight against the upward climb.
Dig my toes into the gravel,
suck in more air
and then, for a moment I am king.
Scramble, slip, slide and stumble,
inexorable descent.
The valley floor in shade
The bog which never dries.
Downward evermore
Following water's course. 
To the plain open terror.
leave like the Iron Man.