ABOUT THE BOOK
The works included in this collection provide the reader with powerful and visceral vignettes to celebrate the beauty of life and of imagination and to appreciate our fragile safety from ubiquitous dangers and pains.
Some poems are tributes to the serene and the romantic, whose magic is often overlooked in our fast-paced and sterile world; others sensationalise the horrors so commonplace to our homes and streets that their alienation reveals their truly harrowing and insidious reality.
Fictional in nature, these poems are presented alongside eleven special poems dedicated to the poet’s beloveds.
PARTIAL EXCERPTS
'Riverboat Island'
Bobbing on a riverboat,
hand in hand, heart in heart,
for an island far from here,
the bold lovebirds depart.
Written in the ripples thin,
vows eternal, vows of love.
Constellations spell their names,
behind the moonlit clouds above.
'Firefly'
I know you hear me whilst I cry.
Hush, my twinkling firefly.
I am here, and all is fine,
my gentle shimmer, my nightly shine.
I know you watch me whilst I pray;
worry not your wings away,
for I am here, and all is fine.
No need to fear, my butterfly.
‘I No Longer Love You’
'Lauren Taylor'
Sunset heart.
I used to love you,
but now, you’re my eclipse.
I prise my soul from your spirit;
my kisses, from your lips.
Once bewitched by the glints within your eyes
and homesick for your chest,
I remove your impression from my pillow,
and, from my heart, the rest.
Violet blush, and silent lips,
brunette hair, eyes opaline,
hollow skin,
and fading gaze,
sapphires where carmine had been,
Lauren Taylor,
aged fourteen,
found Bradley Flynn
and in deep love fell,
warmed by his dulcet passion-words,
soothed by his voice of caramel.
Extract: ‘Duchess’
Red wine turned to crimson
for the powders in their fists,
the dukes, ever gallant,
must escort this duchess home tonight,
in such a state as this.
​
But the poor, little duke
who should choose this victim,
little does he know…
our duchess
is a murderess—
as his luck should go…
Extract: ‘Nectar’
Thawing nectar on my lips,
let this not be our last kiss.
Hold me tightly, close to you.
Feel one rhythm beat again from two.
Sugar sweeter once before,
show me love awaits once more
behind this kiss of honey blue.
​
Soaked my skin in saccharin,
glazed his love-yous with black lies,
lulled my butterflies to sleep,
and with blue nectar bound my eyes.
'Labour'
Bleach-white walls,
and freezing room.
They gather around my bed.
Electric shock.
Jolt. Convulse.
No life within it yet.
Regulated ventilation.
Coffin made of glass.
Death-kissed body crimson.
And the wait’s over—
at last.
SEE ALSO
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THE EXPLOSA SERIES
