A Flower Memory The summer morning song from a bashful river will parry us to absolution, block time’s inevitable spiral into firework chaos, white water and riptides. Witness the majesty of nature’s instruments of art.
June 21, 2021
Write something poignant, they said. Don’t forget about the due date, you’ve got to show beauty and keep it fresh. They thought they could inoculate themselves from me but they’ll come to see my empty eyes before my pen demolishes their sword.
June 18, 2021
They said it was too grisly and wouldn’t let anyone in to see, but I knew what they were hiding behind that white sheet. I never forget a skin canvas.
June 18, 2021
The rain
June 15, 2021
returned today
The first
fall in ages
Waves of
petrichor seep
Out from
This arid land
Is that hunger you feel in the pit of your stomach, or is it acid from a million missed opportunities eating their way out from the inside?
June 14, 2021
We’re not standing on the shoulders of giants, we’re wading in pools of blood.
June 13, 2021
I thought I’d seen it all, until my last tour in Vietnam. We were clearing a village after a bombing run and came upon a hut full of children. They were all clinging to what was left of their mother. There was so much blood. I haven’t been able to eat spaghetti since.
June 13, 2021
Reproduction is an exquisite human function born of practical necessity. Flirt with Eros if you dare, but be ready to run, to dispose of this dangerous masquerade. A frigid moon dust path awaits those who daren’t desire.
June 12, 2021
He thought he was the sole survivor on a deserted island until the locals invited him to a feast in his honour. They reunited him with his battalion, or at least with parts of it; skewered body parts, some still clothed, all served on a sprawling banana leaf buffet.
June 12, 2021
She realized he was ticklish as she lay the straps across his chest, and he started giggling uncontrollably.
June 12, 2021
“Laugh, while you still can,” she said and turned the crank. The ratchet squeezed his chest tighter with each click until his creepy giggle came to be a sickly wheeze.
We escort time each dying day, navigating liquid crystal nightmares in search of puzzle pieces conceived by stellar cores: ethereal words confessing stardust wishes, aspirations of life and death.
April 26, 2021
Her daydreams escape in chromatic ribbons of technicolour poetry. Painting over curative scars, propagating lightyears passed old stars—a taut rainbow of intertwined emotions, this eternal ballet of yesterday’s reflections.
April 25, 2021
She’s my light
March 23, 2021
My lady in red
She loves me
Like the ocean
Loves the rain
With each other
Side by side
We’re unstoppable
I call her “Love”
But the stars
The gods
They know her simply
as “Xanthippe”
Demons lurk
March 20, 2021
In dark corners
Of troubled minds
Set them free
If you dare
But understand
They won’t forget
Their natal grounds
Eventually
They’ll come home
For you
Nestling, festering
In the voids
You’ve left
In your mind’s eye
PG Patey 