Jeffrey Side (London, UK): Six Poems

SHE LEFT WITHOUT DELAY

I mark the time when I fly high.
I'll be landing very soon.

I cannot relocate my genes.
I cannot fix the balloon.

When suspicion is in your heart
the innocent are hurt too.

My ambitions are paved with
thoughts of a nature aimed at you..

I'll take you off that man one day.
I'll take you at your word.

I'll take you very far away
to somewhere you preferred.

I need you in this room dead soon.
I need you in the air.

I need you on the moon in June.
I need you everywhere.

I knew someone who looked like you.
She haunts me to this day.

She was a screamer too.
She left without delay.


LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE THIS FAR FROM THE CHTHONIAN

we are moving towards
a theory of beauty
tremenous natures veiled
butane on jehoaphat

stigmata nationalist
condensation steals redemptive
like cool alabaster twixt the
seasons of love and pornography

darkness is rechargeable
for ignition through
contemplation of stench
I was abandoned with reclaims

of the high nature and there
are no accidents except her
anatomy bred forth organism
like that time she stood me up her

dominant motherhood
wave-matron phallic surplus
condition of autonomy closing
her flesh envelope

over her minoan female tower
made me curious as I crept
towards moment maximum intensity
horizontal chain-like arranged

whereby conversation became
pointless camouflage
consumption for the sailors
was her call


DISTORTED REFLECTIONS

Make room
inside the
steaming glove
if you
have time to sell.

Keep to the right
all things
that please
and things will turn
out well.

You must come
down
upon your knees
and admit
to all your thefts.

You must come
down
upon your knees
and pay
the fine that's left.

I cannot explore anymore.
I cannot count to ten.

The downward journey
was not fair
and roads congest again.

You have your torches
and have
become the symbols
you despised.

You cannot live a lie
this way
and still keep the things
you prized.


BABY STEPS

the high kingdom beautific
go we drop bassoonist

meadow jolly congeneric
wavering candle heronry

you old heavens lenticular
love's day numinous

rubies after the kiss
trapped in brutality

river shades
lesbian celebrated

changing skin absorbed
lazarus regains the spear

destiny night reserved
uncas I heard a great voice

shell-encased turtledove
like walpurgisnacht

and tripoli like them
I'm gonna get home tonight


VOICES IN THE LIGHT

Sometimes voices
in the light
will call me back to them.

Back out of this
place where
I have spoken from.

And then I will turn my
back on you,
and on the storm-bled sea.

And even
on the sleeping faces
that will never wake for me.

I will find myself
expanded
out of limitations plight.

And no earthly cause
or battle
will keep me in this fight.

And what will seem like
nothingness to
those that have remained

to me will seem like
childhood
when in the time of May.


GREENHEYS ROAD

The vessels of love crowd in.
Their traumas hidden
among the reeds.

No love is lost or given to them
as they clutter the minds
of thieves.

Strong, sober and drunk
I come to you.
My weakness revealed
in my glee.

And book-like I pray on
your need
to comfort - sometimes.

Now there is light.
And now there is dark.

And that is the way that you
can pay
the charity you give
to men like me.