There’s a tangle of tears
trapped inside like
one of those wire balls
of fairy lights
quivering like a mouse
with stone-giant hands
how to hold the precious things
while the rest gets torn down
walking as ghosts
puppet-shadows loom behind
grotesque approximations
of life split in two rhymes
somewhere cracked open
like a passionfruit, purple rind
waxy, strange, so different to
the gold ooze inside
What I want to say is
there’s an ever-distanting, displaced
version of me
and I’m worried about her because
she’s going on her way
and I’m here trembling
like a rodent
who’s been caught in sharp light
not sure whether to run or die
start a new life
my brain held in
rock-giant hands like
a bowl of bright-smelling ooze
studded with shiny black seeds
and those softspider veins
while cave-light shadows
make small mockery
of insignificant me
with a snarl of tears
caught inside
like a barbed-wire bottle
of fairy lights
clairevetica 