"this is sixth form poetry, not Keats or Yeats"
Emerging from a coral cocoon you drift towards the surface, feathery legs dancing beneath the waning light of a harvest moon. Perched beneath the waves you hover between worlds, bobbing bug-eyed at metal giants that pass in the night; their limbs of fraying rope and steel beyond the scales of …
Breaking free from sandy beds you race towards the water’s edge; lunar compass perfectly attuned to the faintest glimmer of starry nights, and the worlds of distance in between. Constellations align, as you cleanse the sands from the sea’s rotting discharge; custodian of the dunes you cruise the coastlines, bearings …
Carved from the swamps, we dredged your home to make way for our own; squaring the deal with metals that were no longer precious. Their caustic arrival painting our castoffs in violent hues of indelible ink; a technicolour of toxicity that leached across the landscape. Slithering through the sediment like …
As chimney stacks spew forth our tainted offerings of industrial excrement, dilapidated ventilators strain to suck poison from the saturated veins of concrete obelisks; their glass facades opaque to the inevitability of our subsidence. Inside these effigies of excess numbered commodities sift spreadsheets like Sisyphus, smiles met with nodding …
The crest above the grassy plains dominates the outlook; its raw-boned peaks threatening to pierce the very fabric of the sky, as beneath its jutting crown mislaid senses of distant lands lie buried beneath the snowpack: The fabricated whispers of spinning jennies cast as muted echoes in the ice, …
Born into violence: the offspring of mixed aggressions, traces of sickly silver quickly infiltrate our atmosphere. Toxic clouds that sail the zephyrs, spurting their entrails in rhythmic pitter patter of metallic rain that cascades upon the sea. Soundscapes of forest fires and burning waste sink beneath the waves, where …
Swaying steadily in kaleidoscopic fields, spectral fans reflect the turquoise light; their mottled aura straining spectra as warming oceans bleach branches and lighten latticework. Parasitic hues scar the surface, lacerating living skeletons with vibrant, polished purples; their corrupting shadows smeared across the ferns, as copper-coloured paint leaches from beneath a …
Synthetic fossils adjoin the coastline. Fallen into dirty piles they wait to be shucked clean of sand, and mud, and debris. Flowing like tallow beneath the waves. Fleece jackets wick our irritants. Fallen into dirty piles they wait to be shucked clean of sand, and mud, and debris. Bleeding …
Drifting beside western coasts of uncovered continents, metallic leviathans stretch their sunken limbs. Hinged jaws spitting sulphurous seeds that linger beneath the ether; clouds condensing to float through the air with steady, rhythmic slur. Hidden from view these artificial barrels of rain line up in formation; secreted shiptracks that …
Leaky pipelines cannot excuse The vileness of your touch As it seeps malevolently From its ancient, grainy prison; Your eccentric composition Creating chemical fingerprints That dance lightly across the Soft and drifting breeze, Masking your toxic presence To finger innocuous fields Of rice and herded scapegoats With the legacy of …