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

she can’t ever begin to see what’s real is to be alive to try to do what is real would mean too much life an overflow and we forgot the truth long ago on the beach the disillusioned poet told us so then inspected schools but failed it seems for school is where we learn how stupid we are and i got straight as all those years and here i stand sitting on the rock and looking down into the cloud where everything is perfect and loose one little spot between two rocks water and a noose rocks and water rocks and water rocks and water creeping closer upon the rocks and water rocks and water rocks and water until the truth floats on by like a can of 7-up in the river who put that there in my perfection I didn’t ask for it yet we get what we don’t ask for and can’t ask for what we want grab it take it in~~the truth is illegal~~the un-cola fizzy busy boiling recoiling insides breaking dreams and who wants that no one is there to read my poem i put it in an empty whiskey bottle rolled it up shoved it in capped it tight tossed it into my perfection and just watched it float right back to me and i don’t want it can’t even give it away so I turned and walked from it lost my perfection and there’s something to say for depression nothing nothing nothing fills you like depression fills you up brings you down great taste less thrilling but much stronger heykidgetaloadofthisshit happiness never makes you want to kill yourself in the morning in her bed i’ve come to hate sleeping because it always means waking up breaking up is real can t talk about it cause talking about it makes it real look for me in the abstract cause that’s where i’ll be with all my friends right till the end or the big inning which ever comes first i cursed out that witch in my head of course keep it inside outside inside outside inside rocks and water rocks and water rocks and water i hide it suppress it unless it catches me when i’m not looking like she did when i was okay okay okay (we could float down the river in the orange raft and you’d never forget it it would always be the day you left work and floated down the river and were cold) and then her eyes~~did you see that god her eyes~~the water rocks~~if only she knew she knows you can be sure of that thought she didn’t know but she knows they always know~~her inner engine tells her so and when it lights up like that green means go touch and go touch and go too slow too deep dark mysterious abyss miss serious doesn’t know~~oh yes she knows they always know~~i know i drown one thousand times within her eyes all alight and all alive every time i tell a lie why must i try to be like the one who loves me tender loves me true number one song with the word love in it after that i couldn’t think of any more but she kept them coming all night long (all you ever have to know about life is that little girls are taught to dance and little boys are taught to kick it’s all over from there my son is going to get a whole bunch of garbage for his birthday and i’ll say here boy play music) use it so do you want to go (no it’s too cold and it’s so windy we might float too far away) but being too cold is no reason not to go (i know i was just kidding) oh still only nights before she read in the middle of the naked night with me on the balcony river wind moon and cold while i tried to not pay attention pretend i wasn’t there didn’t care and she cried that she was so feeling it until the tilling of the till of the cold took it away so we went downstairs off the balcony out of the cold and loneliness and sat on the floor and she was so feeling it but then it was the noise and the crowd and the blue boys with their flashlights and she couldn’t fell it anymore oh do you think it goes to vegas (what) do you think it goes to vegas (what) the river (you really want to go to vegas) prostitution’s legal there (why do you care) sometimes i feel like it’s the only thing i’m good at and she cries you’re really good at making me cry (i know i’m sorry why do you think that is) because because you make me think~~perhaps it’s her inner engine i make it turn~~and from behind he says she’s beautiful he’s lying unless he’s talking about me right (yeah) so do you want to go (don’t ask me that don’t tempt me with what i want) too much life too much truth and the orange raft stayed ashore that day but on the third day the man who died rose again and rose again and rose again and came down and came down and came down from his mourning wood looking for something less than a whore yet more than a prude and that’s the truth about easter sunday the rebel had used his hammer well but for the wrong reasons so he came back and came back and came back as flesh longing for the taste of sex mary christ mother of god lay for us winners now in the shower of our wets the knife sharpens the blade and drives the nail in the river he floated down between two great cliffs down the falls between the bush the lion in the tree knows it too he seems free but his actions are years behind his thoughts floats down the river towards her inner engine if i would just do what i want to this one day it would make this a good spring (but won’t) and flowers shower pollinating power as the birds and the bees play as they please trees are like life and they keep falling down all around me~~all my friends are crazy it’s about time i start looking at myself~~i wasn’t feeling it like when i sing i have to feel it or it’s just not right her Inner engine wouldn’t turn so she asked me to wet the key won’t fit make me cry (what) make me cry i need you to make me cry so i can feel it~~what else does she need me for~~eyes~~did you see it that time did you~~drowning rocks and water the rocks the water~~catch that~~(i don’t want to make you cry) oh (i can’t just make you cry) yes you can i know you can (no one’s ever asked me to make them cry before) ~~was that a smile~~and (i’ll remember this for all my life) not a ride down river but a cry down soul so simple tear open my breast and take a look inside the truth~~have you ever loved anyone have you ever been loved~~see it now all red he knew enough to make her inner engine soar to heaven hell and back enough to die enough to cry but didn’t and she couldn’t cry i couldn’t turn her inner engine up in through though i would like to but that’s something else someone else’s job jobble gobble wobble throttle to the place where fairies play (Joe blow has decided he will no longer be a fairy he finds a bunch of cunts and losers and then finds mary)~~it went something like that~~ is that you (hey you turned to this page not me) laughs in the shade cascades of warm water thrill the tilling till it’s too late to lay to lie to cry to scintillate menstruate meditate to feel what is not real (do you do drugs) no (that’s good) i’m not saying i won’t to live an easy lie try i tried to try to make her cry but there is no water it makes me cry want to love her~~ could have told her told her told her told her the told her the told her the told her the the the truth is always a lie~~but instead i stood up and she sat down and time ran out with my hurt in the sea of drowning men