Crush

A whispering waif waltzes in
Wailing wordless warnings
Wondering, wandering, waiting
Always waiting, seeking

Searching, scouring
Peeking, pacing purposefully
Back and forth
Four more times, tip toe wall to wall

Watching, listening then go forth
Never go thirds, split it right down the middle
Mainstream and diverting sharply from that little trickling
Babbling brook

You so carefully nurtured, aided and abetted but
You can’t fight nature
Blank faced and bemused
Why do you do what you do when you do what we don’t do son

Wake up, smell the roses
Or the daffodils and not the nightshade, never the nightshade
Dull and dark and drifting along
Rein it in and feel the rain of mediocrity
Running across your smooth sore skin

Hooray for hemlock said the first and
Last martyr, this world isn’t built for us
We who wonder what effect, weight
Tone and timbre tell us

Of your mindset, her mindset
Anyone’s mind, once it is set and firm
Immalleable and uncompromising
A battering ram against us aqueous fools

But you can’t crush water

Breathe It In

So let’s put some scores on the doors
As this whore’s on the floor
And we’re finding this all
Far too familiar

So take a deep breath and
Dive in, fall in, collapse to your knees
Or tip your toes, trace them against
The bottom, scrape the enamel with a nail

Then bounce back and come up for air
Breathe it in, take it down
Cheap perfume and chlorine
Chalk this one down to experience

Or a learning curve
Just as she learnt of the power of hers
We all surface and lay down
Colder than before, yet far wiser

Who’s keeping track, who knows the drill
The march, slow and steady,
Regimented and relentless
Towards the climactic finish

And we all know now that we’re just
Pieces of dressed up meat
Sweet sacks of skin
Tossed idly over white bone

Breast stroke, back stroke
Keep your hands to yourself
The water really opens up here
The currents could pull you down

Dry yourself down and get dressed
Nobody drowns on my watch