ONE

-----

I asked her to wrap me in cotton wool,
She said would cotton sheets and a duvet do?
I said make me a child again
Because of all of this world hurts too much
Adulthood is a pale imitation,
Of childish games.

I used to make shapes out of the clouds
The rain was never unwelcome
Everything unfolded with half fear wonder
And the elements took joy in scaring us,
Beneath the bed .
I don’t care for splashing in puddles anymore
And boots only get stuck in the back
I learned to time the lightning crack too clinical.

This social Science has killed the child

Can’t make magic circles anymore,
on the way back form school.
The world makes fledglings,
from mothering wings when moved away
And it’s like your life just started
cartwheels in the playing field, made with a beaming smile
pigtails flailing,
a half-mast marker to the soon departed children
To be replaced by anxious looks down the aisles,
Of fancy goods markets
Wondering if we can really afford to go on
And as the vipers nip at the purse,
The loose change rattles,
Makes an almost ugly look of our pretty face.
It’s a jarring verse of discomfort these days.

If only I could afford that childhood cotton wool
the hocus pocus witch hazel swab,
Cleaning the cuts of the tick Toc robbing time.

I have dug a hole in clay and laced it not with icing powder

but with lime

I put a mattress on the bottom,
the size of mortgage, mider-downpayment,
and I tore at the ten toggles
Of a seven day week overtime.

ever so
Make me a child again

TWO

-------

I don’t need to ask.
-she shovels softly in the most golden and generous sand
Almost awkward but so precise
This tenderised vice, the jaws of a subtle hold
This anxious anvil, I, upturned by time
Keeps it ready for my eyes
She’s like a turtle mum
A calming equilibrium just beyond the shore
I’m getting ready for this departure every night
Into dreamland
Keep a pen handy for the dreams that fascinate
She said
Keep your thoughts on magic things
Close your eyes find your own cotton wool

Make yourself a child
And hide for a while.