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

youth

and you are
      ALL
           OVER
                  ME

and when my eyes are but red pits
in my head
i want to come to you
and show you the shade beneath my body

                                         (so much shade, darling
                                           that you will never again have to see
                                                  the stars)
and you will twine the wind around my fingers
and tell me of
a thousand stories that have yet to be
              told
and i will wonder
what my hands did B4 they held

               you.

age

old and deadened love is no stem to

this much pain……

these many nights……  

alone

the freedom that screams out of the love that i hold for myself
fear that screams out of the knowledge that i am growing older
and lonelier

now i look for you every night
out of my window
(or mind)

but you never come

marriage

please

make me your queen. i will sit
beside you. i will never complain.
                                                                         (i will dry you out)
i will enhance your lifestyle
                                                                 (i will fuck your eyes)
i will behave suitably
                                                                 (i will put misery
                                                                  where you will not
                                                                        see it)

i will
        always
                    be there

never here
                                                                           just there

right behind you, right beside you.

                                     . . . . . . .

car

a quiet movement of being                    there are

                              shadows

            (on these restless walls tonight)

not knowing the rules             i

                don’t speak

            (and learn that silence is too intimate for our means) 

 jungle beats of rain on black on sky                and i

                     cry

            (the only reason being my own)

                       lies