how will these exposures turn out


  • how will these exposures turn out
    given our sumptuous penury, we are rich
    in despite, in raised voices
    and luxuriant imagistic scars.
    i have been walking and peeling off
    layers and sticking others on, but
    what sort of glue is words. clag,
    that smacked and wiped me till
    i acquiesced in a person, who
    whiled their time squatting
    on a desk, siphoning emptiness
    into their womb to take the edge off.
    wind penetrates used nylon
    to be closer to us, finds haven in banners,
    scuttles a copse. what do they say
    apart from colour and debilitation
    and get on with it, go on
    with your work, abide the ferment.
    and if to your hands come bruised
    friends to be held up by their
    wizened wrists, their necks slack
    and green, you wipe them down and
    chide them in a put-on voice
    to remind them what they are,
    a faintest threat of persistence
    squirming on the head of a pin,
    still about to be eaten,
    , and the process continues.
    its been swell playing these cards
    warmed by your fingers.