Salty Water

Pour salt into water:
rinse and spit.
Repeat.

Useful for wisdom teeth, sore gums, tooth decay and enamel rot.

Inexplicable rashes, bruises in the shape of possibly someone you know, grass stains, itchy backs and noses, broken legs (not arms); a craving for chocolate-rolled foudant, courtesy of somebody; nervous toes and hay fever are helped.

But there's more,
so I'll let you in on a little secret.

Destructive arguments, war, the missing TV remote, demonic possessions, terminal illnesses, the mid-life crisis--

death

--and a broken heart,

are all things of the past.

Mosquitoes

That awful sound
at the dead of night.
Buzzing
fat-blood drinkers
zipping down;
wings that guide them
down to the meadow
to graze.

Turtle chasing the rabbit

The turtle chases the rabbit
but the rabbit chases the fox.
The fox chases the thrush,
but the thrush chases the lion.
The lion chases the crocodile,
the crocodile chases the mouse.
The mouse chases the rat,
but the rat chases man.
Man chases God
and finds nothing of importance.

Oh My God!

Sweet mother of God,

why do you surprise me?

I open my eyes: you’re wide

with a smile, and a gift on your lap.

What do you have to give me?

An explosion or two, an implosion

would be nice. Cyclists launching

head over heels

and space holidays to the far side of Mars.

You surprise me,

you always do;

so I praise you.

I praise you,

and when your name is not enough,

I scream to the heavens:

Holy Jesus Fuck.

Skeleton

The skeleton in the closet came to the party. It danced and danced and we tried to stop the skeleton but it wouldn’t stop. It was making a fool of us all and the entire family was ashamed. So so ashamed. The skeleton in the closet just kept on dancing and every alcoholic drink in the room was drowned down its sickly throat.

The Zeppelin

(Thanks to Phoebe Halstead for the drawing. Her art can be found here: http://phoebemayhalstead.blogspot.com/)

"Look outside: a bright day,
a bright sky. Clear as snow
plains of the Arctic."

The boy looks and sees
blue cheeks. A sun for a smile,
but the emptiness is a frown.

Empty is nothing.
It is a frozen existence,
and the sky needs a shape.

"What would you like to see?"
Santa speaks and the boy
trusts. He asks for the greatest gift.

So the old man draws a zeppelin:
as light as paper-thin ice,
as sweet as freshwater,

the airship nestles in a colony
of clouds. Little human dots feast
in the gondola: on fish and fruit.

"They will see the world,
towards the East,
and back to the West.

They will visit the mountains,
and civilisations of breadth
you will not believe.

Towers and ziggurats,
marsupials and wildebeests
and icecaps dancing on the sea."

At the edge of the universe

At the edge of the universe,

an old man drinks

alone                         

                                   (so listen well).

Hear the lungs and heart

ah-humming

                        ah-hum

                        ah-hum

                        

He is Hivemind.

He is God.

He is—heartbroken and

             happy.

Do you know this man?

Are you associates?

               friends?

               siblings?

Because he won’t know you:

               you’re a stranger

wearing strange clothes.

                   (and it’s sad),

Because millions of microscopic years

developed us,

                    loved us

                    and hated us.

We drifted away.

                                  (stars on a highway)

Made friends with

          metal casings,

danced in oily dresses

and dreamed:

                         of bliss

and the company

of an old man.