Variations On A Death-Wish
Guttural As A Jammed Cassette
You are an apple tree, creaking, weeping
At windows and doors, wafting in
Songs, like a dancing crab:
To wreak havoc -
To drill -
By asking, over and over, slating
Your question in like a bad debt:
Why do you keep signing
Up for the things that make you want
To cry?
You are an allergen, sneaking, creeping
Crawling under quivering skin
Like a movie-scarab
To wreak havoc -
To kill -
By asking, over and over, grating,
Guttural as a jammed cassette:
Why do you keep signing
Up for the things that make you want
To die?
Jousting With The Grim Reaper
All I know of the art of dalliance
I learnt from you, O Death. How to offer
Oblivion in one wracked breath, then veer
Away on the next, like the barb-laced lance
Of a black rider. How to spin the heart
Like an apple on a knife, make the peel
Spiral off the swift-rusting pulp, then start
Gouging out the seeds one by one to steal
Its final hope of immortality.
Cover image: La Seine, Paris, Oct. 2021. Taken by writer.