She had a face like a photo-fit
Or the kind you’d find on beer mats,
A grimace from a court sketch,
A frown all ridged and unwell.
She was someone else’s graffiti,
A stuttered chapel prayer,
A feeling something’s never right,
A dizzy, spinning moon.
They chattered hatred,
It wasn’t paranoia,
You could smell it in their hair,
Burnt toffee and smoke,
I stood on the periphery,
Another unexplored argument,
Awkward with shame
And dizzy with doubt,
I was one of them once.
I saw your eyes whispering
Sad-hearted lullabies,
Their heavy lids fluttering
A makeshift release,
You lay in bed
Like a soft, settled sand dune,
Pretending to sleep,
A sadness resigned,
There was nothing
I could do,
The summer had fallen
Into bleak winter dreams,
I took
A long, cold
Look at myself,
I was begging.
We wrote it on walls
And the weather erased us
Autumn was ruined
When it’s clear you’re the second choice
And the night is a quiet as a distant moon dying,
When nothing you say comes out like it should
And loneliness gathers like dust,
Sing.
It’s a deafening scream
When the vampires cry back,
Their faces turned youthful
As their sour tears collide
With the truth on a precipice,
A dog on a string,
All pathetic and boney,
A moment from darkness.
An improvised blackout
Takes the eyes of the generals,
There are truths in the night sky,
A pale whine pervading,
Where they once sat untouched
They are now sad and broken,
A whispering hollow,
A humbling bond.
The shadows play tricks,
All moon sprayed chameleons
And desperate darks,
They set things on fire
And sing songs in unison,
Love dies in seconds.
It’s the strangest of tortures,
Staring at lovers
With a small bag of popcorn
And a terrorist’s tears.
I opened my heart
To a young nurse from Nice
As I topped up her drinks
And sank into her eyes,
They grieved
Like termites on trunks
As a forest fire spreads
And the heat turns to fear.
The barmaid who served me
Had only one arm
But she was quicker than most,
The tears that I shed
Were brought on by you
And the way you broke down,
These were sweet drunken moments
On a woe led occasion
As I laughed like a gutter
And sweated for jokes,
You were brilliant
And somewhere he knew that.
