RESISTANCE

We used to raid the freezer

in that dirty garage but cement

and dust made him cough.

His mother was a puritan;

he'd sniff and splutter when upset,

dance defiant on the car roof

then run off to town

giving her two fingers.

Winter mornings across ice,

spitting steamy gobs

through a face-hole in wool

with pale knees shivering

out of coa...

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BURGER QUEEN

An old photo snapped

in front of that plastic bubble sign,

our first date being the last time

I ate flesh: no more traumatic gristle

and though you were perfection

in heels, a pale silver dress

my carniverous girlfriend

you persisted with the meat habit

so years later, still together

you criticise me for courgettes

said at the ...

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PENSION MALDA

Peering through clouded glass

into empty space and silence.

I used to love that accumulation

of ornaments from earlier times;

Quixotic history casting shadows

on a family by their open fire.

There was always shelter here

no matter how late the flight arrived

and with luck you could escape

the bugs - a kind of bedroom roulette.

Creaking passages s...

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BISCUIT FACTORY

Here one learns a new vocabulary

tinwash, tray off, mobcap,

swiping in and stacking down.

Some of us arrived for a month

one spring and stayed forever

like jaded nomads finding pasture,

needs met, horizons ending here.

In ghost-infested rooms

the newcomer gets lost, disorientated

by the sprawling tangle and pulse

of peculiar machinery

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PART OF THE COURSE

I guess he was

just no good at it:

stood on every board

that creaked,

banged his knee

on the coffee table,

collided with silver;

he might as well have

worn a striped T-shirt

and carried a sack

marked swag.

So when they caught

him, sprawled

in the rose bush

and led him away

he still hung on

to his dream

and vowed to try

and...

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ADIPOSE HARRY

At an early age he learned

the folly of swimming in wrong circles

and how some languages

have no word for webbed feet.

I'm going to leave you

Adipose Harry, his wife says.

You are morbidly obese.

Look past appearances, he protests.

I have a heart, pure and good.

Yes, but it's enveloped in fatty tissue

and you'll most likely die.

He waddle...

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CHANCES TO LEAVE

Hunched over his ouzo, unshaven

as the steamer pulled away on visible blue.

A guy who's going nowhere, you said,

meets every dawn with negativity.

Later we sat upstairs while Kumiko picked

through rubbish on the beach for fun.

Less of that scrap, you shouted down,

not everything is sculpture! Then turning to me:

At school back in Denmark we fou...

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THE GIRL FROM GALLIENI

The town looks run-down

this rainy weekday morning;

a single street climbing

to nowhere special,

an old boulangerie,

some sleepy Asian shops

but the church door

extends an invitation

so I step inside to breathe

the incensed silence

of wood and alcoves

then without a word

a vagrant poet appears

from behind the church,

his...

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