stupid bloody fridge magnets.

Written in a state of frustration on discovering the phrase 'have courage' on a fridge magnet at work.

Advice from Inanimate Objects

The fridge magnets tell me 'have courage'
but what do they know about that?
They live in a world that is plastic,
cliched and oppressively flat.
I wish that it could be so simple
I wish that advice was enough
but I thought I was brave till I knew you
and courage is slippery stuff.
The truth - though I cringe to admit it
- is courage is something I lack.
Though I thought to be lost in your kisses
I never quite dared to go back.

old and title-less

Help me - I need
a hand
a lift
a friend -
I need
someone
to pull me from this place
I've fallen to.
Take down these walls
and take my hands
and hold them -
and never
if you love me
let me go

Wishing on Stars I Can't See

Tonight the world is full
of people on porches
whiling the night away.
They smile and wave
but the weight
of conversation
pulls them right past
a hello.
I am sliding by streets
that go
nowhere,
watching the sun set
alone.
There is so
much
I would could should
be doing, but instead
I am only wandering -
passing by porches
and wondering.

drying strawberries for winer

we slice them paper thin;
heart-shaped slivers of sweetness
set on a screen
to lie and dry
in the sunlight.
when the edges curl we pry them off
bury them in crackling paper
and put them away.
months from now
when the world has spun
from the sun
and the ground
is frozen
we take them out
pass around the paper bag and
eat our hearts
in the darkness.
and although each slice is
a surprising burst
of sweetness,
each one is just
the memory
of a strawberry:
they are sweet but
insubstantial
as fleeting as
the taste of summer.

Teenage Wisdom

I know fifteen-year-olds
who think of love
like breathing.
In and out
and easy
as changing shoes.
They fall like
raindrops
splatting broken hearted
to the hard ground
only to rise
dry-eyed
a moment later.
pitter patter
on the pavement,
little hearts
think love
is just a game.
but who am I to say
I know the way?
At fifteen I didn't fall
like that: I fell
the way a watermelon does
from twelve tall stories -
hard and fast and
inadvisably.
Now at nineteen I am splattered
at your feet
a mess of pulp and peel
and shattered shell.
It is a loftly spot
from which to sneer
at 'silly' girls
who get back up.

one breath at a time...

............

If love is like oxygen
why can't I breathe?
You are just the same -
you smell like home
you smile like hello-I'll-never-leave-you.
You wear my ring
on the third finger
of your left hand.
Not a bit of that
is fair
because
if you haven't changed
I have.
I came a little
unravelled
and so
don't wind around your fingers
quite so smoothly
anymore.
I'm sorry.
You are bad news and beautiful
and I miss you
but - stop smiling - I thought
you'd be different.