Friday, November 14, 2014

Five commands to make you listen

Wave to me from your side of the ocean
I'll send the starfish your way
they will guide you to treasures,but I will drown you near shipwrecks
it's more interesting to see fish making dreams
into bits of wood

Tell me of the ink smudges we leave
like footprints on floorboards, I promise I won't clean after you
or after us, there's evidence in steps
only clear when we look behind or ahead
if we look at all

Draw me missing one body-part,
an arm, an eye, a heart. Don't fear cutting me on paper,
I've handled worse scars, I've handled the jab of a knife on my kncles
and I was prone to being drawn
in the dark

Teach me how to act abnormally normal,
the way a smart advert stuns you with its shimmer
that exaggeration of regular needs:
 bread, salt and butter
I'll return your lessons by showing you how to survive


Allow me to nurse you by the gazelle's milk
sweetness in your stomach, stolen from a sitting antelope's pride
leave me space to speak to you from a horn
or maybe even a trumpet, like the heralds
maybe you will then hear
the punctuation in my speech.



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