Heat Spell

Owling out Oliver
steam anchor down
cruciform fizz cup
this needs a torch
wear a crown Jonny
shearing the corona
cross thee over
sham key nails
on a mannequin lever
rag moth
bones need a coat
Ethel snake
a round of dice
caught on Broxa
rocksy dolls house
clockwise and
anti-strainer
arrow oil
grey fader
racing blues
lost your mood
out board trash
parallel jumpstart
trap the felon heart
and I've dropped a stitch
are you piranha
are you karma
are you flying ant day
thunder wings
and secrets come undone
fever shock like
Scorpio armour
foil I think
of armagnac blisters
truly flame out
glove ice hand
waxy slip tied
soul dust
Nero fan track
some empire
wake up Annis
pan burn
catty lusion
tear refinery
claw snaring
trenchy resister
crimson seen staring
stay in one place
love rust alley
I know you're there
anaemic injection
correction box 

 

down the well

going on a move lots of pockets in a jacket army surplus for note books numbers sums in my head sense of direction never could do that road works and palm trees in the atrium he doesn't travel anymore windows without the lift and pull open but I can't stay in one town even if they call it a city and why would you want to leave our trains had doors that would fly open hundreds of mph then she wouldn't be able to get out stuck left it too late and going somewhere she didn't want to beyond the ticket first year in danger car with steel rule stanley strangle wire sits on her own thinking of all the damage she'll have time for if the opportunity made himself known mother didn't worry she knew I carried a knife estates drawn on the side of a roman road bus stops are really loud up north people really do have television voices or nothing's stopped there for weeks and the end of the queue is where the last person wants to go lucky for them this place isn't very good and it's home and has been for generations guide books never say that and looks so nice in the picture can I have a return please no we haven't cracked our skulls timetable gospels over the tannoy reverse at five which one of us is least likely to get searched boot lace undone captain why haven't you got a ticket to be honest I couldn't face getting off at my station so I'm here I see just pay at the window train jam five stacked up evening into night she can see home and hungry summer night looting rush hour freeze outside hours before anything moved not everyone had a seat office girls in high heels got down on the track and started walking guards shouted get back in that's too dangerous all that time breathing in body heat and the windows let too much from out in doors don't open till we stop at a station he lived closest got a bus east us four finding our stop heat drunk and london that time is so silent a grassy area with a swing and sand pit tower blocks and business anything natural living here keeps it to themselves he knows he's lived here for years gritty urban concrete beach do you two know where you're going get a train with me no we know we're enjoying the scenery we know the way we might be later station gates locked left hanging about outside taxi drivers get ready for I just want to get home don't care how much waiting room's locked and the drinks worn off you better get off the cleaners are female and might think you're drunk if I'm not drunk why else would I be here lean into the bend and hope there's no ice four of us got home just keep her walking we will know once I see the river or not actually notice it until bridges day light he got there road blocks people filming from windows record the event action fires don't get out they're in hoods throwing bricks they're kids this is a passenger announcement you'll get killed we couldn't hear it from a night bus south I was just walking and someone shouted out of a car what you wearing I'd been feeling the weight of false legs very old two hundred and fifty the set cross over on the blind corner she sang as she walked home in a new place for company emergency things or a long time ago with her best mate further from the station soaked and mascara runs knew that road well found my way in fog and shoe pinch her favourite songs we knew all the words I sang them on my own but didn't own up upstart start up build up drink up west again friday night capital card to tottenham court staircase looks like it's been under water if we had a shopping trolley we'd get her home quicker then bash something metal on every lamp post as I got into my road and vow to only ever work somewhere on foot you're right it's the same suitcase wheels and duffle bag all those new towns look temporary boxes of cubic metres and multi picture houses we'd get in cars often hired to visit roundabouts she goes into town to get out again spokes of a wheel steering was my main problem shame lockers are in the past some things you just don't want to carry around information update construction some with lights showing off how high they are if you lived here you'd be home by now yes I would is the door locked you got your key I've forgotten my book so I have to think about where I'm going and the rocker who looks fearless and sat in first class she wonders what it's like to walk through those fields rather than stand and hang on to a chair back when tracks collide and wheels conflict hitch hiker as one foot creeps towards the other I'll take up no more space than I have to

Kings Cross

If you are in doubt

café pop radio

is the same in the sun

I am distracted

and over brew

our car's been stolen

a kid shouts

advance warning

major works

delays expected

do you want something

quick

electrostar

arrival on time

she changes the music

and lets them drop

wonder what they done

between girls

before phones

on the big screen

horses on the final furlong

platform bedroom

shoes

open back

spiral

metal

staircase

gets busy when there's

sport

leopard squeeze of pink

from another world

a police car wails

five feet from

the fire door

thank-you for your

co-operation

covers herself

a stripper and a man

high five

and always carry

water when you travel

 

Map Seventy One

White morning

line frenzy wait

one has to be right

slowly

while I look up

time the meaning

delay

no, it's alright I'm

just I couldn't hear you

the connection was mud

and the air

fast line

the air had corners

delay

that was breathing mine

I wasn't

time had stuck doors

splintered

thought you weren't there

and you

can I trust embery sky

one sky cut line

could be the way out

stretch so I fall

wavy through

wrought iron railings

and mossy jags

pretending Berlin

on the hour unpredictable

solitary heart down first

crocodile spray on hide

cellophane siren

and gouged out sea view

of a bomb site idol

doing spider

and sword words

with arum lilies

every sword of his melted

in tyranny design

every tone of violet

bruise a mattress landing

I didn't ask for colours

if I could only

sleep till winter

and write everything down

make up a name

any page for you

you can have a murder invite

or invent a missing person

any leafy number

of frost burn and sun bite

from dreaming Gemini gardens

a misunderstanding

we're lost

I allowed an impostor

when I opened to say

now he's at the window

telling me what to think

so nothing is fixed

delay

yes, but not in this order