AUDACIOUS

AUDACIOUS

what you did to me
was so audacious
sneak up
to my room
elope, run away
with my imagination

who knows who dare tell
what you too
have
got up to

Devils rejoicing;
Angels weeping;
until

change of configuration
and it is now
the other way round

as you oscillate
between the stratosphere
and
deepest trench
in the ocean

and me
left here to
contemplate a life
without life
poems
without poetry

what you
did, did, did
was so beautifully cruel, audacious, liberating

cannot
hard as I try

get my head around

DOPPLER

DOPPLER

whee whee whee

my poem approach
blues shifting, steel strings
tight under bottleneck

hootchie cootchie

wah wah wah

you left
me standing swallowing
your exhaust fumes

unless
first you engineered some
piercing feedback

whereupon put foot flat on
fuzz bass or got riff going
on solid
taking it away from
the top
of the fretboard

full
All Along the Watchtower
Hendrix not Dylan

highs and lows
of this poem my
range
of octaves

such range
could be yours

for you to go full Doppler
red red shift
red red dress
and red

down to the core
this way that way
with
the text

short length long length

my text
your text

wave fronts collapsing front
and back

RIPPLE

RIPPLE

I wondered if
you
were Ocean

your soul
Ocean

had to know
was
so unsure

so dipped in my toe
licked
my finger

felt your ripples
as they touched me

ripple effect
so sure in you

FOR NOW

FOR NOW

supply
and demand

supply and demand

so much supply
so little demand

bursting at the seams to
get it all out
light-
speed
if I can

tsunami word deluge until
you
stifle at the source, slow
me
down

but you are here
slow burn what

you are
advising

need to put the pressure, need
to squeeze the
outlet

just one
precious, delicious syllable
all you
will allow
for now

new driver, pilot, figurehead,
captain
at the wheel

the Fates sent you
the Muse sent you

slow me down
slow me down
slow me down

HANDS

HANDS

I stand behind you
shadowing
your
every

helping your pen
to thrust deep
into
the page

reminding you
to tap into
the rich world
of the senses

feast of pleasures
I am helping to
elicit
teasing each syllable out
with a dexterity
it took me so long
to learn

such
a slow, painful process
but now flowing like
a fast-moving
stream
into your
heart
into your hands

my fingers
drip
with your poetry.

MODE

MODE

I met
the Queen
of the fire ants

down in her tiny chamber
she stung me
into Picasso mode

and then did I
attack them so
ravenously, both
Earth
and Heaven

turning the ether, the soil
into shape into colour

into the green
of your eyes

raw
beating red
of your heart.

PRINCE

PRINCE

want Prince
to deliver some
choice electric licks
when
we make love

go full
vibrato bending
the notes below
and
above

pluck
some extreme wailing joy
from those six brilliant strings

assault our ears with his guitar
as he oscillates between pleasure
and suffering
and the Universe between

and then
the cream of all crescendo
as he picks at the bridge

storm of feedback reverberating
as
he kisses
goodbye

exits left
having killed

JEDI

JEDI

I am
special kind
of Jedi

old, horny mentor,
not exactly green
behind
the ears

feel
the force
flowing through you

light side
dark side

wholly front
and totally back

PLAY WITH ME

PLAY WITH ME

play with me
stimulate my mind
wherever
it situates itself

keep
me on the straight and narrow
steer me in
the right direction

pedal to the metal
rubber stuck to the track

and for propulsion

pick up those yarrow slips
rub
two, and me together

maybe spontaneous, internal
combustion
maybe
a spark

(you outclimbing and diving me
because you
come with fuel injection)

Fire
over Mountain
Lake over
Heaven

seems the omens point
to a special kind of brainstorm

proportions epic if
not entirely thermonuclear

but strike into the hazard
damn and
defy augury

play with me!
play with me!

everywhere I look
wave
of creativity

WAY

WAY

love your
wicked way
with words

your feminine
masculine rhymes

that turn
of phrase that
knocks me
out of
the way

crazy image
juxtapositions that
pulverize
my lexicon
shred
my thesaurus
annihilate me
linguistically

deconstruct me down
to barest subtext

everything I say
without
hearing
a word

as you
let it just roll
of your tongue

narrate
in full stride