I remember you as you were, polished and dismissive
now sawdust and spangles lie on cedar.
‘Insufficient funds’ responds to my favoured transaction
at the checkout’s dystopia, a green-haired maenad slices the machine.
You saw in the eyes the future going away.
It carouses in the shadows
a watery silhouette of vengeance.

Mouth in ashes, words lie in air.
They trot off to a knobbly paradigm
while you manoeuvre the street,
another dickhead on a slab punishing childhood.
Grey object of consternation who could’ve etc., blither,
as past’s sorrowed turquoise eyes cream distance.
Melodrama thickens in a showroom and a cap of tin.
Outside, cars parley and stars replace attrition.
Embrace the true world shoved in a treetop
and the particulate rainbow mugging the horizon.
There lies the repentant wafer
or the two-timing retreads of yesteryear.

Gig Ryan

Published in Read On (2018) edited by Pete Spence.