existence of a passion flower
walking this place, famous for its steeples
its bloodletting roses its human haunts the backstreet operas
i throw glass stones
into the swirling thermals of a toxic throat
moons calve moons, differences impact
on axed idols illuminated in relief
we live the petalled existence of a passion flower. we squirm
at the touch of a fingerprint on pollen
i throw glass stones
& the earth leaps up & swallows them. i risk
walking between silica mouths, licking off sulphur crumbs
visitors dress up
for the event
children dress up
existential
observers
traffic ideas on heliocentric living. they light up my home. marginalised
is where i like to juggle my unpinned imperatives
a girl cycles towards the sun
we live a brief petalled existence
the ground is hot is peppered, layered in crushed-yellow crystals.
toffee apple
in the remoteness of morning, in a desert’s whisper
i ignore borders, boundaries
all togged up & bristling anticipation, i ignore
imaginary lines in the dirt
i need to be fed
need to drink
be inoculated against the unseeable the unknowable
a sapphire cosmos is rolled out, an experiment
for the barefooted who walk on hot blue stones
who defy the biological damage. we’re all
survivors from a cluttered-up sky
living at the centre of daily rotations
we’re all someone else’s creatures
& i suck on that until the toffee is gone from the apple.
Iain Britton is a New Zealand poet and author of several collections of poetry published in the UK and NZ. Recent poems have been published or are forthcoming in the Harvard Review, POETRY (Chicago), The New York Times, Stand, Agenda, Poetry Wales, New Humanist, bath magg and Wild Court. THE INTAGLIO POEMS was published by Hesterglock Press 2017.