Swans snort like pigs
For yesterday's bread
And ducks rise like tanks from the water

Snow
In perfection
On cars
Destroyed by my hand

Raisins between my teeth
Stick
Where are you?

The click clack of lazy days
The world turns
Nobody knows

The cold is in white lines on the window
Inside and out

Whispers so gentle
They're lost for a moment
They only make sense
Later on

P  e  r  f  o  r  a  t  e  d

Posh socks and a couple of firelighters

The sparks go up in a fountain
I can see you through the shower
k
r            l
a                        e
p                            r
S                                s

Your hair glows red
When light meets dark

A huge white totem sticks straight up
The duck rights itself and quacks

A bare bulb
In a white room
Translucent curtains
A sun coming

I put my arms around you. The wind is strong, orange leaves.
I put my arms around you.
The winter comes, and there is ice.
I put my arms around you.
The darkness comes and a stranger comes.
I put my arm around you.
Two children, double pushchair.
I put your hand in mine.
I press my fingers between yours.

The ghosts wipe their eyes
They can't believe what they're seeing

Underneath the casing
Inside the box
Spiders scramble to get out of the way
My past
Hidden
Forgotten
It is time for it to emerge

The p u n c t u r e d holes of a tear-off slip
Birds
Against
The sky

A strange mist has come down
And Arthur's Seat is wiped from the skyline

And it rained for 3000 years...

Murder and vengeance and chocolate

The crunch of ice
In my mouth
Cold comfort
For a love lost

The mackerel in the tin is congealed
Not for breakfast

The streets were quiet and the dogs howled.
Rabid foxes roamed the streets.
Glass cracked under his feet.
And the world was scattered. There was no day.
Only night.
And he was alone.

Hold tightly
It's really cold

Stamp stamp stamp stamp stamp stamp stamp stamp stamp stamp stamp stamp stamp stamp stamp
Those feet
And the worms will come up



Three little blackbirds and fifteen seagulls
Cleaning

Fluorescent lights
Out the window I stare
To where real light is
And dreams

The mist is around the trunks of trees
Subway West End
Three o'clock in the morning

White crepe ribbons 
Washed 
Faded 
The moon paints them across the sky 
I walk beneath 
Cold air in my lungs 
Throat 
It cuts my hair 
But I feel clear 
I can see 
Everything 

A spray of cloud
Dilutes
Frills
Frays

In the mist and the cold
The rain makes it through to my shoulders
I stare up and the world fades
I take off my clothes
And step into the mist
It's cold
But it grows warm

Splinters thorns
Forearm burns
Nettle stings
Underlings

I pull
Unravel
Your clothes
You drink wine
On the couch
Unaware
Of the thread
In my hands

Under the beams 
Of our dreams 
We lace 
And we hold 
Until wake 
ing Reveals 
Us as pillows 

The lights circle my glass
Distant fireworks
Stop
We're at the station

The bird girls sit on the beach and close their wings
Salt crystalises on their faces
After a time they are statues
After a time they are rocks
After a time they are spaces where water collects

There are candles in the sky
The lights go out and I'm flying

The wires whistle
As clouds pass

A hundred mes
Scattered over the bed
All of them in love

Leaving a home
Oily marks on the walls
Empty patches on the floor
Where the sofa used to be
Ought to be
An El of dust
Marks what was
And home
Feels like
A raid

A scattering of golf balls
      On the brown field
            Squawk
                  And fill the air

The leaves crackle
And the packets scamper
As I walk up the street
On the way to the postbox

All these people
Hanging upside down from the clothes line

Orange: Night time leaves
Orange: Night time pavements
Orange: Night time walls
Night time railings are black

You could fit a layer of skin
Between our hands
To keep you and I apart
Which is kind of like real life, isn't it?

Red lines on your lips

I push and you dissolve
Because you are not there

There's a butterfly in the bathroom
I can't open the window

On my body
Pieces of fashion
Jumbled up

Everyone in The Meadows has a bright orange shopping bag

Pink pink pink
Dulux colours in the sky

Honey covered porridge with pumpkin seeds on top

A spider has spun a web of cracked glass at the corner of my window
In a hundred and fifty years all the light will be splintered

It's early morning
Five squirrels cross the road

Seagull chases pigeon




I stare at the rails
Out the back of the train
T
h
i
n
n
e
r
W                i                d                e                r
S        h      i    n  y
Dark

Dirty grey mops
Smother the trees

I'm walking, and I look up
The leaves move across
The leaves move against
The leaves move across

I look over
                                                                        The waterfall
          Rocks
                                                                                        Go round
                              Carving out my insides

Water leaves the beach
The bed has made lines in your back

The bed has made lines in your back
Like when water leaves the beach

Brass rubbed to the pavement
A rain soaked parking ticket

A rain soaked parking ticket
Brass rubbed to the pavement

The tide is out
And an army of white horses
Pay homage to Michael Jackson

The tide is out
And an army of white horses
Moonwalk

Please sleep
Come
Wash over me
Dissolve me
Shut eyes
Deep breaths
But the words go round and round in my head and won't shut up, bumping into each other and making dreams, half awake dreams even though I want to be asleep, properly asleep, so I'll wake refreshed and not have all this bouncing round and round in my head
Until tomorrow
Which is already here

I pick
The flecks
Of dust
From
Your face
You
Have been
Asleep

Asphalt
Dashed lines
Streaming
Home

We need for this rain to dissipate, he said.

The blood hardens on my skin
Prickles come up all around
The scab turns black
And falls away
Leaving pink skin

Lampposts cross each other
Praise the Lord

I miaow at the cat in passing

There are worlds where we are together
There are worlds where we are apart

Greasy bus
Hooded kids
A dirty rainy day

The trees are painted on the water

Muesli crunch
And ice cold milk

I put my fingers in her hair
And lift it so the light is split
There is nothing to do

Lost tourists
With large bags
Wonder if
The empty school
Is their hotel

Pink salmon
Green broccoli
Red tomatoes
Cream potatoes

Lines in my pillow
Made by my fists

The display falls to the floor and shatters
Leaving only a hand to twitch
I will always love you

I'm gone
How do I get my
Hands inside your clothes?

The owl is out early
All the mice look up

The petals fall
About the rose
I take the stem
And the thorns
Prick my skin

A seagull waddles across the flat top of a roof
It pecks in the gutter
And looks at me as if I'm stupid




She is
All sorts
Of Love
Ly
Things




She comes in a box
With a bow
And in amongst
The straw
Are all sorts
Of feelings
All wrapped up

The spiral galaxy spirals
So many sons
So many daughters

Community is Dead
Long Live the Internet

The last of the sun
And late in the day showers
Make dirty red brick gold

Dirty red brick made gold
By late in the day showers
And the last of the sun

Scree hill
Ski hill
My feet slip and stick
I can do it because you're behind me

A handful of gravel in the air
And then the pigeons land

The wind makes waves of the grass
As the sun spreads heat through my cheek
I wipe an insect from my ear
Disappear

Mini-buttercups
Inside a buttercup
Inside a buttercup
Inside a buttercup

Trees spear me
When stripped by acid rain

Spines of frost
Iron filings on a magnet
The cold is here

Mouse skeleton
Insects scurry away
Into their bladed forest

Leftover showers pepper Edinburgh
The sun breaks between

The rain pings the grass
Insects are landing

Fairy Liquid bubbles
Come together and make ducklings
With poppy seeds for eyes

When darkness comes
Moths bump my window
Thump thump thump
Dead man's fingers

Five whole candles
And one stays lit
Even with
What's left
Of the breath

The school is so shut that
Even the seagulls have abandoned the bins

Three squirrels in a tree
One upside down;
White belly fur bare
Nibbling
Nibbling
Nibbling




Fish pecks
Disturb the silver screen

The air is sticking to me
I've washed my hands five times today
And still I scratch




Action Man
Face down in the mud

Surrounded by textbooks
I had better take the cellophane off

Thunder breaks
Monsoon in Edinburgh

It's hot country wetness up my nose
Plants and soil and the like

Hands up
Elbows down
The girliest run in the world

Pigeons in a shitty hole
Pecking at Macdonald's polystyrene

Bent over each other
Breaking up

Car noise wipes my ears
It's like the sea, faraway
I press my face into the grass

Itchy mist

The bed groans with my breathing
I hear the springs inside moving
I hug the bed and wish it was someone

Two picked daisies;
Little old ladies on my windowsill
There are 22,000 children outside

I will complete 14 tasks today
The old man will walk across the park




Spattered swirls
On a Deep Blue Sea
And
A boat
On sifted mist

Cabbage Whites
From water

A cloud of birds;
Black flies against the sky

Buildings are dead
Trees are alive

It's black and white comic strip rain outside
And I settle into my book

47 seagulls in The Meadows
All approaching me...

Necks extended
Two swans in flight

Damp soily smells; and
Green all around my eyes

Seven moles on a barbed wire fence

Roadwork smoke
And Lady Gaga
7.53 in the morning

Fluffy grey balls
With beaks and tails
And feet you cannot see

Daylight made faint by the corridors and closed windows
Lifts me from my sleep

Icky yucky sour stuff running down the back of my throat

Slip
Inside
The
Sheets
Of
An
Ice
Clean
Bed




Duck silhouette;
A
Rorschach
Blot
On the silver
Water

The pain
The crying
Cracked hands

A red hole in my skin

Spots of white sheep against a green field

Love
Arrested their hearts
And stilled the air in their lungs

Croissants
Pulled apart by long fingered hands

Clouds like cauliflowers
Packed up in a box

The eyes he makes are real.

Diamond dust water
Freezes and falls

Cherry blossom swirling
My feet slap against the tarmac

Apples falling sideways
Frisbees in the air

The sun lifts the dew from The Meadows.