I tried to hold on
to you
but as you pulled away
you tore at my flesh
and I tore at yours.

Holding on made
leaving worse
for now you hold a part of me
and I hold a part of you
and neither of us can be whole.

A paper plate
rests on your knees
you absentmindedly eat
as you catch her eyes
across the room.

Half a smile
flashes on your lips
before you glance away.
Half a smile
engraved in her mind
as she drags her eyes from you.

You focus your attention
back on your meal;
you pass it off
as an accidental eye-lock
and though your heart
beats for her
you resign yourself
to doing nothing.

She sees your hesitation
and though her eyes
keep coming back to you
she settles in the belief
that you’re not interested.

When all it takes
is a gentle kick
to convince someone
to do something
they need to

I’ll pull on my boots and get kicking.

Homeless in his own home,
with a wife he doesn’t love
and kids that shut him out.

He’s on edge like a visitor,
a house guest overstaying
his unofficial welcome.

Glass underfoot shatters
with every tentative step
on unstable grounds.

Homeless in his own home
as she finds hers
in the arms of another.

He’s left to pick up the pieces
of a life broken down
a family that fell apart.

Homeless in his own home
stranded in a wrecked life
a body missing a soul.

Her mind is a winding village
of quizzical complexities
she gets lost in streets and laneways
that lead her down confusing paths.

Her young mind is moulded
by the examples lived around her
which have dragged her
in opposing directions.

She walks the wrong paths
her choices a danger to herself
but she’s living a life
already mapped out once.

The example she follows
is one close to her heart
but one destined to cause her
a future of problems.

She only does what she saw
her mother do before her
and this could be her downfall.

You move from heartbreak to heartbreak
never pausing to examine why
you cannot hold a single relationship.
You don’t need to be in a relationship
to find your identity
you don’t need an other half
to make you yourself a whole.
You are more than enough, alone
though you don’t seem to see it.

Sometimes, it’s wise to be single.

Picture frames filled with faceless figures
memories that slipped through the cracks of this mind
and got lost on pavements long since forgotten.

A life lived, a lifetime ago
a closet filled with unrecognisable clothes
unseeing eyes glazed over.

It seems time wore away
leaving the present to vanish in an instant
and history a hazy image.

Like light piercing shadows
I find revealed in me
feelings I forgot
that I thought I’d left behind.

You were gone for so long
but when you walked in
you upturned the soil
and brought back this love
from the grave I’d left it in.

You have the power to resurrect
but I’ll keep the grave open
chances are this love
will be buried again soon.

For this reason
I should say no
I should be cautious
because I know better.

But for you
I’d take a second death.

He watched the smoke curl from her lips
and the ash drop into the tray
and he found himself fascinated
drawn into a world he had kept away from
a world where people paid to slowly die
in the name of recreational fun
and then paid to have themselves fixed again.

Mr Murphy is the wisest man I know.

On a bright sunny day
he packs an umbrella and raincoat, just in case.
He always has two spare tires
because you never know what you’ll hit.
He has a house key in his car, and one in his wallet
so he’ll never get locked out.

Mr Murphy is also the unluckiest man I know.

On a rainy day
his umbrella turns inside out, and his raincoat forms a hole.
He pops a tire and goes to change it
only to discover he’s lost his toolbox.
He locks his wallet and his car keys in his car
and cannot get to his house key.

Mr Murphy has adopted a particular phrase to live by:
Anything that can go wrong will
no matter how prepared you think you are!