Saints & Reason

And yet so still

Everything hurtling by

Breathe—we will

Brace for

Impact

Ringing, ringing in our ears

Quiet quiet sirens

Someone screaming

Go on, dip your toes in

The slimy rocks of the icy cold

river, flowing and spilling like you into

this quaint township

Bony arms spread in welcome

Go on, dip your toes in

Sure, look how lively she is

She and her people

With their big jovial mouths

Soft, kind murmurs of disrespect

Come and join us in my endeavours 

Every object is a weapon

Every word poisoned

Take flight, or play hideys

Inside the bomb shelter

Where it's dark and the world is muffled

She'll scream and make you come out

She'll hit and scratch and scream

A creature so wounded she must burn you to keep herself alive

It's not a violet house, it's a violet home

Pull, hit, screech

My feelings are so real to me

I'd like them to be real to you too

Long stick in my fat hands

Beat, pinch, scratch

Your pain frightens the shit out of me

Her hair grows into other dimensions

She reads the sign above her bed

'AWARE OF DOG'

Please notice me :(

A growl and a whimper

Back to the depths of my arse I go

A thief in his youth

Wise at the mouth

of a dry-eyed mother scorned

For her lack of mourning

Flesh barely clinging to stiff lips

Should you dare to ask,

dare you, dare you ask?

Then ask boldly and broadly,

With your poor-and-wanting, fat-but-empty gut:

Who shall they be when the sun returns

To yours, theirs or no land at all,

Be it wont to oblige us—no—

My lover, she hung dear

By claw, by desperation and tooth

Had I not advised her

Oh, had I not

I might've saved my lover-bye

And so swam she in a slumber

The scent of summer berries lapping at her skin

Like knives to overripe fruit

Teeth to bone

There once was a wee purple fella Who to Tenerife went, he’d tell ya

For a month and a day He trod on beaches so gay

Sandy inspected her fingers thoroughly. The skin, chewed raw, was stained with dye from the day before. The typing in the background made itself quite apparent as Louise sighed in Sandy’s direction. 

“Are you just going to sit there all day?”

“No.”

Sandy stood up and moved to the sofa across the sitting room. She chewed on the stained skin. 

“Maybe if you stop breathing so fucking loud, Louise.” 

Louise matched her tone perfectly. “Maybe if you get over yourself, Sandy.” 

“My brother just died.” Pause. “Louise.” 

“Fuck.”

“Yeah.”

Louise plopped herself next to Sandy. 

“How did you find out?”

“The guards.”

“How are you feeling?”

“I don’t know.”

They sat in silence. Sandy’s fingers were pink with irritation. She didn’t give a fuck about Donal while he was alive. It was more than that, even—she fucking hated Donal. Every time they spoke she’d wish he were dead, and now he was. 

“Pints?”

Here I stand

As the day I was born

Soil cracking and crumbling beneath

Strong heels, good ankles

And who would have known

Pink rosettes on gold, a frame

The subject: serenity and her wings,

Not earned but spent:

In fulfillment more than exhaustion,

Late afternoon sighs and oh me, oh my

Watching these thoughts, like

Smoke swelling, rising into the stratosphere

Puffing like I’d just come first in the race

Cheered on by the back seat

How’s it going, me? Well, it’s going. 

Thy Kingdumb come

Thy Will be done for

In its last make-up fucking

For what it lacks in stillness and thought

A crescendo, a crescendo of

Debriding festering fornication

In embers you go, fat little butcher

Speak, if you'd like

Of the old God of the forest

His darting eyes and moss

All antlers and branches

Cer: His spirit and body

Hooves blending in the ground, soundless

Swift, flanked by trees and their voices

Did that thought hurt as it passed?

I stopped to hear your story told

But checked my inventory and found

I can't afford to pay attention

So save me your dead, tavern man

The last of the blackberries to be picked

Trickle sweet from soft

Lobes upon lobes, and can we really trust

The pair of us to assemble a brain?

Henceforth, the devil spat, 

No more blackberries shall we pick

I carry it in my chest:

a vial that follows me all day

the sighs and gurgles

of purple pebble potion

and periwinkle dew

Light-mites flutter and dart

on their tiny padded feet