I was asked by Visual Verse to be a lead writer for this month. They provide you with a photo and an hour window of time, and you must write something inspired by the image. I am honoured to be at the forefront this month; a project which has seen Bernadine Evaristo, Ali Smith, and Deborah Levy as contributors/patrons.
Kept Up By You
Kept up by you, I roll over
and take a sip of the cold
coffee left over from sunset.
Lips daubed with scabbed-
over saliva, salt granules, and
the inevitably splitting jaw ache.
Plucking feathers out of my flat
brown sugar hair by the window,
beating you down with snowy bicarb.
Between worlds I plan to fall, but
your goozle squawks like a baby bird;
all shoulder blades and no great beak.
Kept up by you, I chew the air,
folded like caramel, bleating on in an
effort to bore you into submission.
Courtenay's Corner 