new year’s eve (haiku)

he has made me a

harlot languishing restless

for his honeyed tongue

soulsmithery

i scribe confessions
theses of heart-songs
but until i let
the words fly from
the page to your 
patient ear
i am mute with
unsung yearning

galaxies

unlike any other 
your helen of troy
my prince of paris
keep a wick trimmed
for my return
from this pilgrimage
i am almost there
i will meet you
in between our
constellations

a wish (haiku)

infatuation
rewritten with affection 
indexed under joy

one hundred longings

one hundred nights
turning glances
into stories
one hundred bites
changing moments
into lifetimes
one hundred days
cooking looks
into wonder
one hundred ways
to love you

bon courage

this revelation rests heavy on my conscience
weighing up the cost of honesty
against the disquiet of silence
sends me into spirals of sorrow 
the shadow of the what ifs
hangs around hopeful
for resolution but
the question of bravery remains

caught up

i've reached the sticking point when it comes to you and how much space you take up in my everyday the day to day the down to the millisecond split for the winner of this marathon of magic make it stop make it stop make it stop see now that i know the urgency and the agony of wanting i can only hold onto hope that you do too too risky to say it out loud but you have always read between my lines so finally it is time to undo the code and flick the kill switch three two one one more hint and i will rupture into pieces too bent to be put back together again again i find my centre screams for only you you are the drift net and i am yesterday's jetsam ready to be gathered when it comes to you i've reached the sticking point

kindness

let me down easy if you don’t feel the same let me go gently into solitude to soothe the hurt of my own making and make it just a tiny bit easier now that we’re older and softer do me this one kindness i won’t ask for anything else just this just this just this one kindness this one final moment snatched like a secret from under their eyes it almost always felt like everything else was a lie if you don’t feel the same let me down easy and i will let you go

(r)adelaide

we are on fire
streets steaming and 
scorching the soles
of our weary feet
we are on fire
and waiting for
the sweet sting
of rainwater
we are on fire
smiles bleeding dry
until winter returns
with green offerings

2020 (haiku)

stripped back to the bones
brazen and unburdened now
ignited at last

the sailor

cartographer of desire
his memories mapped
in my muscles
his course charted 
by my impulse
a sea-worthy predilection
steadied by wave upon
wave of hunger 

storm-touched

hands like lightning
grounding me 
sparking thunder 
in this parched heart
left out in the sun too long
and once the cracking
currents are spent
then comes the rain

#910

edging closer to a thousand mumblings
every day another steeple chase
towards a shifting finish line

it's that day (haiku)

spectres surround me
try to unlock the armour
built from love and rage

nine years ago

these days the only scars i show
are the ones i know i earned
not the ones left lingering
in the wake of their fear
i am still here
and they are diminished
by guilt

save yourself

falling from ecstasy
i catch myself
just in time
just before the exits are closed
and knives rush in
hungry for my self-pity