Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

A long way
             when down seems THE only direction & every abyss
           is lipsticked into tempting a long sweet kiss
           like a fly to molasses

Is kettle boil, LAST bus or rainbow's crock

Rely on a domino theory & topple from LOOKS on high to
                                                                    lowered blinds

& can happen anytime, to anyone, anywhere & not be
              cheap provocation or corporate merchandising;
              I was SOLD on that moment

Thanks for THAT-I really NEEDED that; that hole taken whole 
                                                                     out of my HEAD

Just a smile                 (honey, that was the buck passed)
Can amaze & enchant w.the strangest of details

HONEY it was the shoes, of all things, SHOES
       say ma'am, can I take one off & sail in it inhaling y'day's work?

Heel & sole of Cuban heart & soul thick & HIGH
Hallo, Hallo, can I come & live in  y'shoes sunny aisles?

    could've been like passing anyone, anytime,  anywhere
Cept for this FEELING of filling up
              like a bucket under an all night tap
              kinda dazed me
              in a GOOD way, felt fleeting
& kneecaps ebbed to feathers & flittering nerve fluxed that leg-back
                                                                                       tenotomy
& courage softened like rice-paper to dry mid-swallow as tendrils
                                                                                  of taut lust
& the stomach was plucked by its stem thro' the engine of incited
                                                                                         heart
& powerballed & balanced tremellose & gravid w. goodness
& misery bolted like a hare from a lurcher
& excuse me, Miss, can I be y'tongue
& can I feel those teeth from the INSIDE as they press down on 
                                                                                    my lobe
& clumsy will y' hold my hand for hopskotch
& light is bleeding low across the meadows so will y'walk w.me
& night is calling like a little CHILD for her lost mum & dad
& city dissolves around us & exists less & less cept as a vacillating
                                                                                           dust

Hey! Stranger!            you didn't have to, not like that, not at me
But I'm glad y'did
To you         maybe as a leaf to an autumn tree, to me
              that smile went & pulled me up
              like  a good samaritan from a pit of self-pity's tar;
              like  a gaol break on my in-step out-of-use emotional 
                                                                                 Alcatraz;
              like  a mermaid at the far shore's jagged vista;

So much for my lizard stance; lazing stone ego ushered to y'sun-
                                                                              soak smile;
So much for my slug instinct; frozen to a twig of liquorice by y'sun-
                                                                                  soak smile;
So much for my bear cage-this involuntary DANCING for all for
                                                           another chance of a smile;
This odd feeling decontrols me-Honey

I'm smiling back tho' it looks like a wince, like a cringe
I'm trying to say I'm grateful you took the moment, took the chance

Least I can do is purr appreciation

Every smile lets a little animal go