Aquariva

Chocolate aquariva ride
while tired eyes blur the lines
between synthetic and organic waters,
wonky and sleep deprived.
Wind tousles sun-bleached hair;
pushing past the theory
to the heart of the
matter.

Cruising:
bass rumble in my headspace;
sun beaming through the
zenith.
Tears heat shades and warm air bathes,
intuiting the complexity
for the first time.
It’s a watershed moment.

A kind of vulnerability,
scarier than death,
could turn a cynical mind to the
mystical,
equilibrium to chaos,
cutting through black waves
rushing zigzags through my
mind.

Strobe lights forced my hand;
looking back
from distant coasts
I could tell this was special,
aquaplaning on currents of
prospective memory,
diving down to new
depths.

Through orange-tinged branches
up at the sky,
the warmth of another and
later fireworks erupt
and the trees bear witness
to something so stubborn
pulling
like there’s more than just this.

Touch land for
coffee and sweeteners and
barriers broken down
in living room therapy sessions.
Open like chrysanthemum,
cerise pollen spilling out
buzzing white negative light:
I remember.

Combers crash in chocolate eyes,
glazed like gossamer,
longing to be
drifting aquariva
and saltwater splash up on the hull
on seas of moments lost
and moments gone for
good.

Spectrum

Find your place
on the spectrum;
change the locus
of control.
A pineapple beneath crispy
layers of ocean,
vivid yellow,
aqua submarine blue:
that’s you.

‘Get those bright colours away from me;
they offend my sensibilities’.

Stagnancy:
saturated, stuck
in our ways of
stultifying sameness.
A rigid infinity of
scummy olive
gritty oil spills
floating viscous
and black.

Obstinacy:
resistant to any
alien idea;
zero empathy.
Scrubbing away all
the inconvenient
anomalies
so the data fits your
schema.

‘Why should I dullen these colours
to save their eyes some wonder?’

Relabel the labels
so they fit you right
and fill your
colouring book in.
Witch doctor
with indigo
witch hazel
remedies:
that’s you.

Transience

Your jaw’s tired,
sat in this kitchen,
still wired.
The light on the fridge
is tripping you out;
don’t know what it is.
Tragedy hit:
black and white everything
and time don’t exist;
you’re in limbo.

Darkness takes her place right now:
soulless;
try to remember her face right now,
but it’s over
and you were so in love,
feeling you could
feel that way
forever.

But
the peak passed
for good,
for better or worse.

So
supplement and combine
but longevity is a lie
told chasing that
first time.
It comes and it goes,
that’s just how it goes;
it only works for a time.
Every time you close your eyes
it’s like you’re still awake:
a tantalising taste of
paradise.

All you can
see is her
face.

Pray for her return
but something died,
the connection failed
or your brain fried
and it will
never
be
the
same.