Submissions by Northern_Soul

Not massive news I know,
but they say those who have passed
fly in on wings, and I knew you’d arrived
for a laugh, or quite possibly
the sausage roll crumbs dusting the path
‘cause I remembered you saying
the good people at Greggs must fill them
with crack, and I’m carnivore enough
not to argue the toss over calories.

Did you arrive because at that moment
I was thinking of your reaction
to my clothes folded neatly next to me
on a hospital chair. How you’d of made
a wild fuss about trademarking for sure, ...

because today I am water
because salt is more than wounds
because Pisces brands me on a Sunday
because gulls cackle like covens
because I’ve tattooed wild selkie skin
because I’ve never drowned on land
because submergence is risk

[I crave risk]

because I stuffed a message in a bottle
because wet paper feels like kelp
because I am holy, holier still
because God is humble at sundown
because I am late night thunder
because I am a lighthouse of warnings
because my skull is a clifftop suicide

because I am...

Let me start by saying    
I liked her.    
   
It was as simple as that.    
   
There were billions of people in the world,  
and I liked maybe five,  
but she was one—  
   
complex and undignified,    
farted with meaning in her beat-up car,
as the fog rolled in
and you were never entirely sure    
where menthol vape met air biscuit.  
   
We swam once a week together,  
poured ourselves into awkward Lycra    
and willed each other towards water.    
   
Shy of babysitters, her...

My father has jam jars
full of nails in the shed
for emergencies

half of B&Q is stashed
behind the summerhouse
incase of some disaster
that requires a sturdy plank
of 2 x 4.

I have no idea what
that shit means.

Now, I’m aware
there’s a drawer in my kitchen
full of seeds and voucher clippings

a pouch of buttons in the spare room
next to the bag of broken jewels
I’ve magpied into a corner

one pot for ribbons,
two envelopes of bus tickets,
a box of letters...