Category: Scraps

• Scraps #06

  there is a palpable ache

  a gap in our hearts

  sorrow whistles in each rattling breath

  you told me once

  you were content with imperfect

  showed me what it was

  to rise up

  to keep going

  your laughter

  called us out on bullshit

  we’d thank you for it

  you were the best of us

  we’ll miss you

  blank spaces where your reply

  would have been

  seats at a table

  smile for the times you lit our lives

  be grateful

  we were part of yours

• Scraps #04

  I love the way the streets gleam after the rain.

  When I can see myself and the sky and my pounding footsteps in the slick gloss of each puddle. When everything seems possible, if only the sky would turn blue again.

• Scraps #03

  Apologise now
  In tones familiar
  Brush soft skin against legs
  Against comforting arms
  Escape
  While escaping needs only step and step

• Scraps #02

  In my mind
  I stretch toes in your grass
  Flex each pad against
  Blade and blade and lush green blad

  I lift bricks above my head
  Throw them
  Shoulder tension clenching and
  Released
  Through air and through expended breath

  Through carefully stored glass.

• Scraps #01

  Since early 2022, I’ve kept a notebook with me everywhere I go to capture words and phrases that came to mind while I was out and about. In this new series, I’m going to share a few of the ‘scraps’ I picked up along the way.

  Some have found their way into my poems in various forms, others I haven’t yet found a home for, but they are all little moments of thought in their own right and, I think, worth sharing!

  Scrap #01

  when you hear her fists pounding
  you close your mind
  retreat to safety
  where the brain-child you’ve nurtured
  can’t be scolded