The campfire crackled,
Shocking, burn
And all my breaths were frosty
I took my mind behind to learn
Whatever the campfire told me

I stoked the flames
I poked the flames
The logs, they spoke, and 'lo
They told their ember and their names
And asked me what I'd like to know.

'I may teach you solitude.'
'I may teach you spite.'
'With me you shall never be alone.'
I saw but one give out pale light
And so I knelt before spark shown

'I may teach you learning
I may teach you teaching
With me you shall never be alone,
For when we are together reaching
Knowing, living love is thrown'

And there we sat and he took me
Dancing among the stars of hope
Our waltz, our gay jig, what it was
A golden cord, a golden rope
Wrapped 'round the stars of hope

They pulled together, planets born
Words written, bodies struck
No, not me, not I, please
I was too ready, took my luck
And spent it for my knowly ease

I left the fire, heady, heavy
Not so happy, not so ready
For I knew all, and I knew many
Telling me what life showed steady
Never taking pearl nor penny.

Wiser now and wiser still
My head hanged lower than the deep
And all my days were spent so cheap
For all I knew was weighted sleep
Knowledge should not fly, but creep.

It's hard to be left behind when
They've all gone to fish for their futures
Although it's the smart thing to do
Waiting seems like dying
Heartbeats become faint when steady

And while they study
I'm here learning
They are taught concepts
And how to enjoy borrowed time
Me, I'm here fighting the truth

I am my own black knight
Alone against the dragon
His fire is a magic pinprick
And they are studying
But do they still study what they left behind

Me?

I met her in my sleep last night,
And it was awkward, like in life.
Her arm was parcelled by a curse
And I hated him at once
Though I hid it well.

I was a king on a throne,
Brooding over battle
And my armour fitted poorly,
A matter which she noticed
And pointed out.

She asked me whom I was fighting,
Smiling as she did.
And I looked down, amazed
That she could be so bold.
She readied herself.

I drew my own weapon,
Distance in my fist
And fought her smile,
While her 'friend' looked on.
She laughed and it rattled me.

There I lay,
Distance brought down and shattered
And there she was,
Above me,
Her smile the only weapon she needed...

Does she still remember
How a coy smile I summoned
Felt on her lips
When I slipped
From the doorway?

Does she still remember
My stinking shirt and red face
While we sat together and
Drank a cooling coffee, which
She needed more than me?

Does she still remember
Brushing past, like bluebirds could dream of,
Making the peace sign as
A plea to her mind and
A recognition of me?

Does she know,
I was scared, and
A little unworthy
To feel all I had thought ready;
All made perfect for me?

Will she take the offer,
Barely written by my lips, and
Come here one day
To remind herself and me
Of what never happened...

And still might?

I respect
Something...
It's not simplicity
It's not silence,
But it's something,
I'm sure.

I expect
Something...
It is simplicity
It is silence
And it's a little,
I'm sure.

I reject
Nothing...
It is hatred
It is pressure
It is the growing fist in your stomach
Save me
Because I'm nothing,
I'm sure.

Why do we mix again and again
A poison bitter strong
The killer tools of government
Consciously created to be wrong

Robotic minds make music
And we will dance along
Not thinking of the people
Who lived the beat the gong

And now we are alighting
To the torch of fabrication
For walls began their freedom fall
Language soon our only nation

She lines herself before me, eyes halting her gait like a rod rid of bait
Trotting her feet again in my way, not perturbed or frightened by me

The churning distress tongues speak about us on the whiteboard each week
Is finally bringing us together, her delicate neck craned ****-eyed

Tip-toe though your feet are crashing, and all pretense of slicing your eyes at me is mashing
But I play her game and look up at the ceiling, red blouse she's got on like honey

Her body pours over, spilling a little as her foot twitches too far and she jabs my leg accidentally hard
I'm forced to look over, that cunning smile done up like hair, you

I meet her, she smiles, she apologises, I smile and nod, saying it's ok, because it is for a while
But when she glides on by I'm angry that her mistake wasn't falling into my useful lap

Like wardrums, that sound, footsteps echoing deep bass-like from the ground
And soaking my skin in flannel bravery and horror at what I can see

Her walking away from me, until next week, the dancing meek kittens
Ashamed to make mouths say what eyes can only guess at

'Hello, how are you, would you like to know my name?'
'Not really for I learnt it long ago, but tell me just the same'

A night of hunting took my breath
Neon, blue and wild alight
I do not care to trade this death
For the worst way to spend a night

Drink it back, drink they say
I injected poison deep within
The stars still blinked the self-same way
Amazed at such a blanket sin

Give me silence, give me tact
Ignore the hunting, the night lament
A corkscrew rot and, as a fact
There are cheaper ways to feel this spent

Come ye, all who broke,
All those whose light
Poured out like a yoke
To be born one more bright

Come ye, all who knew
That one day they'd be
Better than those few
Who never cried for 'me'

Come ye, all ye teary
Who never thought they'd find
Them back at home so weary,
For they thought they'd lost their mind.

Come ye, all ye triumphant,
Who beat back the claws of the beast,
Come ye, all ye poets
You deserve this much, at least.

Grey whistles spoke shrilly
Of wishes never seen
As I sought a hobby that ne'er
Grovelled to'r machine
I saw those moor harpies asleep in their crow
There was a sentence lying dormant in me

Without much more than history lessons
To go forth was a hefty sentence
Making conversation pieces
Of the rocks I met along the way
And I hoped that one day I might
Be there for the rise
And fall of 10p states

To sentence them to mutiny
Silly, shrilly and ne'er hopeful
But at least not airborne, at least rooted
In hobbies gainst the machine
What a terrible lot, indeed
What a lot of terrible days

Ah, well
At the running track I feel
The sentence dormant in me
Bolt upright, turning the grey
On its head, as harpies fall
Into the earth and the stars come down for me

He had hair like leaping horses,
Golden brown of treasures took by skies
And he smiled
Like he knew

He had eyes like ruby fingers,
Fiery bright and reaching for me
Long and sharp of meticulous greed and
Hungry.

He had lips like hurricanes spoke of
Natural, free, loose or wild
His words sprung from him as they yearned to be free
Yearned to write poems.

He knew not, but he had totems
Crafted in the world for him
One called future, one called lessons
One called battle, the call-all of hope

He told me one day I had eyes of redbirds
I laughed and said the same
For in this poem we speak to each other
In this poem he shares my name.

I don't know if I want children
I don't know if I want to give light to
Another smoke-filled soul of lost purpose,
Another one who has to face what I did.

What if my child were a man?
Then he would know that
The whole world is his challenge and chance
Tells he must be found lacking.

What if my child were a woman?
Then she would be afraid of street corners.
Betrayed by her own body's secrets,
Dragging its conflict for her whole life.

What if my child were intelligent?
Then I would know within them an
Explosion of terrible realisation awaited.
They would wonder why I watch them cautiously.

What if my child were not?
Then they would have the bliss of not
Having to know a better world is far away,
But they would never be asked for their say in it.

What if my child were like me?
Then I would weep, and they would wail.
Lament our cursed flesh and
I would apologise, God I would.

Some people need children to have meaning.
Some people need children to know love.
I hope I don't ever need, because
They scare me more than sickness and health.

Waking up with a brain that sticks to the sheets
It must have leaked last night '***
I'm resting on a puddle.
A full bladder can't get me out of here.

Breathing deep and feeling your thoughts diluted
And yawning, though you're still half dreaming and
You could swear that this shirt wasn't on you before.
Why are you at work?

Coffee jumpstarts your heart, but you heard it misfire.
Your clockwork legs and arms wind back up and
You try for another day. The air outside your bed is
Cold.

You find your way back with miracle eyes
Just before you lose your softness
As you crash into the cotton shores
You're blunt once again.

I cried last night
It's bad and deflating
But after the tears
My sorrow's abating

But after it happened
After I showed it
I felt one step closer
To sadness and permit

It's strange how the joy
Of sorrow can grow
When the coming gangrene
Of the mind can now show

I told myself things
I never spoke out
But now they're exposed
They're a frostfall of doubt.

I can speak of jaunty
All I like, I
Won't find that taste within
What are friends?

Given little stories to firelight books
I mould myself to fit the grip
I never knew you...
What are family?

Gardens don't tend to shears
Flowers don't grow for late bloomer
Moons, who are you?
What are permanent?

I never left you
You can't be free of me.
For I consider you all the time
And grade all jaunty songs to your gait.

What are we?
Humans don't stay together.
Does that answer your question?
I just don't care.

It's the strangest thing,
We can all blush over really
What we're all made to do
By the pink hand of biology

The coated sexuality
We claim and occupy readily
What strange things we tend to see
Under the pink hand of biology

Roaring flames burn angrily
When met with female gasoline
Or the match of male anatomy
According to the pink hand of biology

Truly blessed am I for so
Might people think of me and so
I am, walking April days on springsteps
With pockets of passion sewn about

What heather bears thine poppy seed
What bee might chance into your scent
Aligned with lights that beckon away
Swallowed poles of north or south

Tunnels gape and gnash stalactites
And eyes bear the brunt of the dark
But I feel not with sight, not where I reap real bounty
With twig and hair I feel my way

And paint what promise I need to survive

What's a ferrous person
Doing here, they asked, those bars of gold
Clutching iron filings as if seeking to squeeze some life into them
Some heat
I clenched my teeth,
Furious

Snobbish, looking down on baser metals,
Mixing only with the company of diamonds
I pulled no punches, held my fists
Red while they jeered
The cracks of ore in my coat
Furious

I bandied through their
Glittering parting like oil and water,
Sliding off me like I wished their wit might,
White hot and flaming, cracking brittle,
Fragile filings
Melting furious

Uncontrollably smelted
Hammered by their eyes
Clenched by their sneers
And burned, scalded, reshaped, reheated
Abused
Scarlet-whipped and chamber fitted

A drill, to reform to a drill,
Aimed at
Softer metals, I
Turn on them, they
Shy away, anxious not to mix
With baser metals, throwing
Iron filings to the floor,
To the earth
Where gold wishes it could be

My jewelry

He saw me sleep
Blood flow from the mind
And fumes from the eyes
He clattered and ground
His gears

His grim fermented
Circuits and wires
Fusing within
A core of metal droplets

I shot up
Blown from my slumber
His bright stare in slate
Wouldn’t fade, but
Burned in my eyes

I shook and sweated
As he could not
That foul machine
Clatters on.

The starling rode the tree
And weathered out the storm
Though his mind had set him free
The wind still lashed his body

Atop the tallest cedar
He held fast upon the branch
His courage was his leader
His teardrops froze and broke like lightning

His nest fell with empty eggs
And he forgot to say goodbye
As he stuck fast with sureborne legs
And forgot to watch it turn to dust.

His gaze went deep into the heart
Of blue flashes of the sky
The nest of the treetop built for the art
Of the titans of the light aloud.

He let the night speak free its mind
For his was much the same
The tempest shook and roared and whined
While the starling stuck fast




The breath was lost and the sun came back
But the bird was not ready to feel relieved
He wanted more of the punishing black
To make him feel he deserved to forget.

When what is new
Stays through night's wading charm
And lasts not for fame's harm
But ignorance left here with thee
There you invite something special, something free.

Where you use what is new
And usurp the old order
You taste what lore old beggars do
And beautify lost tomes once more

When you find what was forgotten
And wrap wedded slogans on yourself
Raise slightest youth from its ignorant ways
There, thine work is well founded,
And your spirit well freed

He hated open doors
Less to hide behind, he felt
And more for them to charge through,
More to use...

Walking past the spotlight eyes
He broke his sunglasses on the daily
And the burning light of the dim bulbs lit the school
Hurt.

Spaz They whispered
But they might have shouted
What feels like a whisper hurts like a knife
When the names are for you

He walked home out of breath
He never wanted to breathe again
He saw how breaths had been used to hurt
As much as punches.

And she hugged him

Carpet feels soft when you know the feet that tread it
Mum
What a feeling
Coming out of the plunging terror.

Darling
The sweetest word he knew
More syllables, more mind behind what he was used to
He ****** in the cherry hugs through his nostrils

And threw down his books.

She looked in at him enjoying
Time spent away from that
And smiled
He will get through it

Closing the door quietly,
She dried out a tear
Moving a sleeve over her birth-marked face
Which had earned her such identity.

Digging through a chest,
Long ago she had named "Weapons"
She pulled out her old school sword
Hello, Courage. she said.

Next morning she gave her boy his lunch
Of potions of strength and fortitude
Made magic
By her note telling him she loved him

Next morning she wrapped her boy
In an armour raincoat
Made iron by
Her hug compressing it to metal

Next morning she filled his tender hand
With her sword
Made courage by
Her own pain hammered into it

And she sent him back on his way.

As she watched him go
Feigned eagerness in his step
She could not hide his pain ahead,
But she knew what came at the end;

Ah, it has a thousand names.
But I shall call it Beauty;
For when he slays those demons
He shall know what he truly is.

And what they are.

He loved her
For she's only ever been amazing
And she liked herself
For her strength forged in the fire.

The boy knew.

Tucking you under my arm
Fonder than a child's embrace
Your wooden limb channels breath
From my chest to my fingers and into space.
Singing.

Cold at first, but we warm together
My hands through what could be called hair
The black teardrop falling between us
As we share each other
Crying.

Let's take all the air about us
And shake it like the mountain's rage
Let's take the ears of all around us
And whisper whatever we want.
Strumming.

It's all we're here to do.

The gloom of night gives naught but green
In trees that gather closely in
Their leaves and fruit fall in their lean
At their feet my cheap gifts of tin.

I motion for them to take back
Human plunder
They wash back their green seas and
Make clear that some roots don't grow back.

What orange bosoms

Can you press to yourself

Prised out a candied tube?

What lice make thoughts creep

And hands run down stockings?



What time spent brainless,

Hoping for a life outside riches

Growing into a chair?

What losing streak

Paints your face, sorry?



What can we talk about

That isn't hopeful,

That asks true questions?

What can I say

of big arses on fat girls

and big biceps on vain men?

In the city of hatred
Love is currency
In the town of the belated
Not all the eyes can see

Smile on the tramway
And watch the eyes adance
Glare at the luckless
The ones without your chance

Chuff down the street
Coffee your coal and steam
But don't ever try to meet
Those with less esteem

Little nooks have passed tonight
And new beginnings bore us on
But I fear nothing now
Crouch again I shan't

Loathe all above you
Curse the lightning struck so far away
But sleep with me, soft tails of hope
I am your burrow tonight

What minds are temples to these eyes?
What thoughts are wrought of dragon sleep?
What power lies awake at night
Fearing, fearing clouds?

What water stirs the millers opinion?
What algae slinks from murky adoption?
I'm you, I'm you,
The cuckoo sobs
And all else wears its feelings.

For lions may dance
Lions may sing
And lions fear no raindrop's glory
I chill, I scream, but not for your sake
For my own terrifying passage
And what is to come

It mustn't hurt
To feel the pain for me
To remember my dates
While I try to kiss you through
A block of plastic and steel.

It can't be true
If I see you smile
And wilt
Never broken by a sun
That shines on anyone else
Never.

You've been so much to me,
But could I feel alone
When you look at me?
Could I know
A lightning flint
Strike sparks on my smile
Just for you?

It's never enough to be alone
Because the things you told me
Build roads to my feet
You're beautiful
Because of all you do
And it would be wrong
To hope no one else sees that.

Whoop, wow, careful now
Don't slip don't fall
Don't break into a misty skip
While dull as ditchwater sirens call

Keep your balance, toe the cord
You have stolen someone's sorrow,
Safety nets long rotted away
From expecting gone what's here tomorrow

But think with what grace you have left
And don your jester cap once more
What spasmic leaps you made, what fun
You got to see while on the saw

Up and down and Romeo
You capsuled dose of fun, you joy
Stop leaping over fields of mould
Stop making endurance your toy

I'll crack the whip and flair your shackles,
Shiver, shake, for soon you'll see
A spirit of pain has blown through with the wind,
But pass it shall, as easily

Cross eyes in the moment and shackle the breath
Sleep is a cousin to death
Fall through the warm ice and float to the deep
Death is a cousin to sleep

Live moons in your promise and hope not to be woken
Eyes stuck with stories are eyes shut wide open
Crawl through the chasms, look up the fire fog
And grow through your mind, drink in deep of your grog

Don’t listen to voices that part with their weep
Death is a cousin to sleep
Their freeness will split you and make words of your breath
Sleep is a cousin to death

Only a clenched burden can bear my face today,
I mellow with billowing sinews, flexing
As a dove who learnt to fly in muck
Grin

But the week brings the strong
The forceful losers who taste a candied concept
Of decency, directed to strange tests
Fight

As defended hopes take faces snarling at the blistered skin
Turned raw to the winds my indignant child blows
I can't help but feel forgotten a little
Puff

But it matters not - as sweat from malice brings out the best in me
I'll strive and forget the reluctance
I felt while crawling here
Success

Let's just hope, when mirages whisper the past to me
I **** an ear and still know
My voice among the desert breezes
Forgive

If we all died before we fell old
Consumed as we blush ripe
What would perish with us
But mold and setting mud?

Life could not be long
Nor sophisticated, for
All that thought never born beyond
The days of cocked feathers.

Our homes the wild trees
Burned or spared by our caprice
Sleep on the moss a groan
Summer in the morning the dawn

Tousled hair a-spring with salt
And the hoary sweat of the night
Eyes sharp and deep
Like pools in frothing rivers unsettled.

Muscles taught in conflict not against the world
But green competition, passion the reward
And pleasure, in sinew pushing, grabbing,
Taking what is Mine.

Our faces our identities
Our bodies our manifestos
Statements simple, ideas cut
To have sharp edges and grate at one another.

Night full of the juicy roars
Of fiery eyes consuming lovers claimed
In battle, ****** conflict
That mean nothing to time, nor for it.

Her smile a sugar suggestion
her ******* her belly her hipsherlips
Her lover at my feet.
Unembarrassed, unrelenting, undefined stones in his dead eyes.

And when lines would start to settle
And sense harden
When certainty dies like an old dog
There is no long goodbye, no sagacity gained

You cry to your last, terrified as you pass
Lost in pure droplets shed from a face
As its teeth grow too far while the mane retreats,
And the soul is killed for it.

Cruel, to let a who live past that
To watch who's spirit
Wash away and see the tide return
Gushing wine in your arms
That's gone dull and bitter from the Autumn left
Too long, too long,
Lived too long.

A trojan course
Before me
Light
Hasten
I'm here

Listen
Please
Understand
What I try to say

I'm not wax
I'm flesh,
Rotten
But perfume's my conversation.

Don't tell me you've forgotten
Bad words
Reek from my lips
I'm me

And I'm confused

Some might die
For the chance to forget
The abusive beating of
Her heart

Their stony skin their
Gravest stone
But I
Have that power
To die now
Every day, forgotten,
But I don't.

The amusement
Of a tickling tongue
And a sparkling eye -
Fire
To my tinderous smile.

Let a little
Pain slip through
For it is with the cracks that form
That words are written.
Those words?
Live in love
Die when you've found it,
Together

I sleep with girls in my dreams
And let roll-over chuckles make our pillows
In that we share
Twogether.

We rumble over envy
And forget the shores of doubt
You, me, her, I, we
Are something more than wind

We adventure
And do so in each other, mostly
People ask me why I grin in the morning
Waking from a story written by me.

I can still see
The liquid lust
Of your breath
I can tell
The heaving must
Of your breast
I can hear
The panting pangs
Of another
When you’re near
I need only
To recover

Give me your
Granted silence
Of some truth
Give me your
Dew eyes
Bitten tooth
We are now
So apart
And so near
How I wish
How I wish
You were here

Now the death
Now the death of ourselves
Now each other
Is a never she sells
We are dying
As my memory dies
Keep my crying
He who still sees
You still cries.

Here I am, in Harlem
Where I will learn my trade,
To make the world that better
For better it must be made.

And though I am torn most roughly,
From pillows and from sheets
I'd trade it all for effort
Gave to tread these streets.

My court is now in session
The spinning starts again
I'll paint a pretty scripture
Let's hope it's kinder then.

Breakdown in the tower,
I'm going to miss you
As I wait for the next step up
The lightning crackles on about.

Or waves roar beneath
Past listens crash alive
I'm healed, but
In our past I was broken.

You'll be everything without me, but
Of course
Not our everything,
That's a drop in our uninventable ocean now...

Our sea between us.

Well, know heartily that I laughed,
That I loved you,
Friends and lips,
Walks and trips

Forever chuckling on into my world.

An urgent kind of motion
Lends me life on grin
And thumb-prints make words
Techno-bio-written

I read you when I'm spoken
I speak you when I'm heard
And you and I speak lives together
That we both were, little brother

Thank you  from a drunk heart to a thirsty living
You're all I love
Hold hands with me
That horizon's for the seizing

Jokes aside, what we're waiting for,
Is a penny promise, so cheap to take
And for you to stop ignoring us,

All jigs downstairs, falling
From my stilness
Ah, I remember
What you told me

Pounds of likeness, oozing from your
Oaths
I just remembered
We have somewhere else to be

Paradise

Some dying wish
Flew from him
As he babbled with
The clink clink clink
Of coins.

Nickel tongue
Plated with all the
'How else'
And icy tang of inadequacy
What could he be
But a shaking
Taking
Babbler?

But there was something,
Some gritted tooth of a word
Biting into my ear
With all the froth and rage of
Rabid animals held on tight leads,

And that word?
Money
Money
Money

Kiss me with deflating lips
Beach body beached on my mind
Fated errors in our minds rejoice
At distance confirmed and hammered in

To lift a veil and see the wolf
Corrugated eyes blend with the sea
Of unthought masses watching TV
Of the dark road, the foreign path

It's hopeless when your sleep
Loses its pull, its fire to be
What happens when legends draw their maps
And don't mark the road you knew they'd make?

I know I'm too young to feel this desperate
Never found the days that would keep the nights warm
Never saw the glint to the Tigers bite
Never saw the moon above the wave

Too old is an expression lost on eyes
Glassy for timebomb putty
Artists weary become manufacturers
When ignored, when declined

Beach body, that's what I had, a belief in clicky thoughts
Understanding caved in to knowing
And knowing fell to fact,

I've built my way, carved in gritty stone
That as sand my footstep knows
I'll crawl forward, step by slip
And follow the path up till the ahead.