Another Birth

It is not through weeping,

but all evening the pale blue eye

on your most photogenic side has kept

its own unfathomable tide.

-At Sea, Simon Armitage

Please Return

It is another world. But what else

Can a mother give a daughter but such

Beautiful rifts in time?

-The Pomegranate, Eavan Boland

Generate Capital

While she discards coat, skirt,

cashmere sweater, a string of pearls,

and lies ready on the bed, left hand

propping her left breast, body twisted

in an S, he fries two eggs

-Naked Girl with Egg, Vicki Feaver

Each Volume

Ambition. Rage. Boredom. Spite. How

how do they taste, smell, sound?

Nobody cares. Jason doesn't. Nor does his dad.

He met a poet. Didn't know it. Uungh.

What would that aftershave say

it it could think? What color's the future?

-Like Earning a Living, Carol Ann Duffy

New Developments

Most of me is marked

by a bitter sense of humour.

I am reminiscent of

intellectual paper-games.

-Opinions of the Press, Peter Reading

Variable Speed

I thought I was dreaming again on the train in the morning

To hear at my shoulder, before I had properly settled,

'Excuse me - is this seat taken?'

-Goldilocks, Mick Imlah