I ever loved castles
Arrow slitted eyes,
the wide, wide yawn,
ramparts are the crossed legs of luxury.
The word portcullis gives
Me an almost sexual pleasure, when whispered
The word oubliette even more so, odd
What things we keep in our basement
It seemed a simpler time then
fortification, borders, protection
against drafts, against nature
the need for security is insatiable, fear:
bashing a mans head in with a stone simply
Because you didn’t like him or you liked his wife or he liked yours or yes,
The pleasure of a siege is patience
So you’d build them up, real pretty like
Stone on top of stone, men would help
You raise them, back and forth,
moving like chessboard knights
On the attack now on the defence
But it’s not all black and white
Goddamn it we were talking about castles,
Walls that fizz with moss
Ruin and rubble make miniature castles,
Aperch the rampart a white owl
No not necessarily wise
But absolutely famished
Keels down into the moat
Yes it is spooked and night has come
As your eyes close and the castle falls away
We’re prone to getting lost
In the spaces inbetween
THE RACING OF HEARTS
It was a golden day
(a day like any other)
not a single jot of cloud
sunlight had just cleared the peaks.
Here, the tremble of the pack
feet invading the dew, droplets
burst against legs and no, oh no,
one slows and falls, fallen
before the finish line
a slender body can go
not one iota further
let's look ahead:
the flat-footed plantain has outdone him
the glide of a seagull outstrips him
gosh, even the oak
fuelled by sunlight
branches further!
Colour drains from his face.
shock turns into acceptance,
his race is well and truly done
lungs deflate like a party balloon.
The crowd are in an uproar, they make
several misplaced accusations
of somewhere, someone cheating.
A couple of splashes of tears,
the poor sod.
They put his time up on the board. Not bad,
faster than some, slower than others.
They open his hands and place
A spray of roses, a trophy full of dirt.
Slow and steady or hard and fast
The spectators mostly just love you
for taking part
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