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First Christmas

One whole year's

time emptied

Like lace leaves

 

From the cold trees

Skeletal wisps

You are missing 

attic tinsel 

 

Boxed deep and dusting

With bristles flaking

From the broken spine

So no silver lines 

Our crisp, black-branched pine.

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grandfathergriefbereavementlossloveChristmas

December Bones

Christmas fairy lights still dangle,
Plastic string of neon candles,
Hallowing the wreckage of the year.

Streaming ‘River’ on repeat
River Warbling marrow-deep

Wash away those spiteful, December bones.


From jigsaws sat on nickel knees
To whisky-nursing you in sprees,
Femurs first you left us piece by piece.

Frailty distils the waters
Trickles down through all your daughters

...

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bereavementChristmasgrandfathergriefjoni mitchelllove

Cinquain #2 (Tired)

Tired

of taming lions,

of dark, eyeless mileage,

of piloting this wondrous ark,

of you.

of dim-heart-riots

rotting fleshy timber,

of all the cages - rusting through 

and through..

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Capitalismloveresponsibility

Cinquain #1 (Stretch marks)

Stretch marks.

Silver ripples

on a pearl pond, he says.

I don't need him to love them, but

it helps.

 

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stretch marksfeminismfeminist poetrybody positivity

Kemah Bob

Kemah Bob

The chime-chirp glint in your talk

pep-drawling, through my grit-clogged Samsung speaker

 

like a wise blue hedgehog with salacious 

pips and chings of playground secrets

 

makes my covid swab a shade less eye-popping.

My cobbled, shapeless day seem masterful.

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feminismkemah bobthe guilty feministfangirlfeminist poetry

#6 (thank you, dears)

Thank you, dears.

For marched words

rawed bare, from

 

placard rage

to simpered

platitudes.

 

For now, plain,

awful grief

is just. Mine.

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feminismsarah everardangerprotestfeministpoetrygrief

#5 (cackling stress)

  Cackling stress.

  Cold, gravelled

  perching ground 

 

  around my

  clavicle

  and sternum.

 

  Clawed and pressed

  to cliff's                               edge,

  don't, look down.

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My last night, in the flat we almost shared

You've already left.

537 miles North of me, of us.

I'll ruffle up to join you in four (agonising) weeks 

but to my unconcerned shame, 

I'm too sad to sleep in that bed without you, too ungoverned.

 

Nostalgia, even the warm kind, is too much feeling for me.

Something about it has always made my lipids curdle 

and an unpleasant tickle cloud in my brain.

 

The street ou...

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lovelove poetrylove poemsjealousyrelationshipssleepless nightmoonLockdown

Poetry Prompt: 'Forever is composed of nows'

 

Just the right amount of squeeze 

at my hip

of a lemon 

on the pasta we craft for each other

of the sponge he knows I don’t like to touch when wet.

A tongue, a croissant, a bottom smack, 

exactly when we wanted one

A well-timed tease, balletically treading that tightrope line 

from this now, to the next, to the next to the next please

 

Moments studded above our ...

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cohabitationconstellationcovid-19Dorsetemily dickinsonholidaysliving togetherlockdownlovelove poetryquarantineromanticstars

#4 (calvin kleins)

 

Calvin Kleins,

Connection

French, lovers

 

not inclined,

in the norm,

to fondle

 

each other.

But I fold

an orgy.

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Underwearsexsexualityorgy

Procrastination

 

my partner says

I can’t write anymore poetry.

until I take out the bins

complete that assignment 

(for which I’m paying thousands for the privilege)

and preferably have a shower

 

not out loud 

but I hear it in his sighs

and the way he closes the cupboard doors

 

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loverelationshipsliving togethercohabitationprocrastination

#3 (sister mine)

 

 

Sister mine.

A perfect

spite-jewelled child.

 

Eyes and smokes

rolled, over

our shared veins.

 

Frayed but firm,

trapping us

in warm blood.

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sister poemsfamily poemsSmokingbloodlove

Tips for a clean breakup

 

 

First, fumigate

Your cell walls fresh-free

of their love.

 

Second.

 

Odious

poison barbed

bitter nothings

must be dumbly plucked from each pink pore,

thrown to landfill,

labelled 'Hazardous biowaste, may cause hideous burns'.

 

Third, make re-chaste your newly bleach-scoured bone and blotted clean flesh 

with a sore blessing of Domestos and clov...

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breakupcleaningheartbreakheartbrokenloverecoveryrelationship breakup

#2 (my mad friend)

 

My mad friend,

a handful

of sequinned

 

wild-eyed zeal,

teetering

on bullets.

 

Shield-in-mind,

I should call

For backup.

 

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friendshipresponsibilityLOYALTYlove

5 things I remember from the beginning

 

 

Giggles and winks at romantic excess 

The mountains seem like overkill yes

I’d said with a grin that shone my delight 

And fastened my thighs steel clam-snap tight, 

 

The still of his stare, blue-blazing and prised 

By billows of sun emulsified 

In bright, surf-swept skies and slick seas of cloud,

 

Long salted kisses, wet noses bowed, 

 

Collateral pass...

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beachlovelove poemslove poems for himlove poetryromancesea

#1 (bitter pangs)

 

 

Bitter pangs

Leak puddling

To the floor

 

The GP

Noxiously

Unconcerned

 

By women

Crying 'ouch'

For sick notes

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biaschronic illnessesChronic painmisogynyNHSNHS reformsexismshamesickness

new year

Another New Year’s Morning.

Smoked and smooth-whisky aged brain with a stab in the right temple.

Start as you mean to go on.

 

The primary glee of proverbial blank slates fresh starts new year new me           (new you, hopefully)

Rubbing my hands together and over the smooth cream pages of 2021

Ready to splatter in powder paint blue red yellow black pink pink pink..

 

A Ne...

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capitalismcovid capitalism. covid-19covid-19happy new yearnew years dayNew Years Evewhiskyanti-capitalist

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