The bottom fell out, And you fell out of your own life. This morning you put on your socks, And you had no idea. The alarm blares and we brutalise, We crush and stab and shock, And I watch you from behind the throng. But you had no idea. You arrested on the floor, And…
I’m lost. You look at me, with wide bulging eyes, Bones like a bird, Folded up on itself. I’m lost. I move you forward To listen to your back, Careful not to Break the wing. I’m lost. You grip my hand, I let you for a moment, Its irregular pulse slinking away Beneath the tendons. I’m lost. In your mind you walk Down corridors ever darker, Sometimes you stop at a room That seems familiar. I’m lost. At the beginning Your mother held you as you walked Now only fleeting memory Holds you to yourself. …
I lay my hand as lovers have, a play of affectation, My fingers fit the ribs, sinew on sinew, skin on skin alone, You are different to me, just words sequestered, In dusty tomes; life scaffolded in ink like the lung by bone. Here is the liver, dull, cage-cooped and silent, Seeing fingers, open…
Katy Bettany 