• Equipment

    Laughed with you, mate Kids in school, husbands at work, the way we like it Dirty-flirty thirty-something sexy-witch jokes Boys from the 80s, guys from the 90s, men from our dreams, equipment. Your new car, its six-speaker cd-stacker stereo —Stick your head in here! —Oh! I thought you were talking about his trousers! Drive for Read more

  • She stands at the counter selfconsciously me … skinny, skinny bootlegs, denim jacket, black shirt, sunnies … orders a cappucino to take away. Watching from the table I know she’s been in the record shop (being me, she’s old enough to call it that) and, yes, she takes a new CD out of her bag Read more

  • He walks in new steps        out of his city, his alley, his archway walks in new steps        feet leaving the broken shoes        chest emerging from the bloodshot shirt walks in new steps        in the rain, in the rain … always in the rain He casts off the layers        the hat Read more

  • Damask

    Other I have stilled my tongue I have been silent so long all my words come out white … I’ll be your baby I’ll rest in your arms and you’ll rock me I’ll smell your stolen scent and hear your damask voice and I’ll be your baby so you will enfold me. I receive your Read more

  • I will find a place to wait. A niche in the shore-held sea-crags. I will watch the lighthouse and the coming and going ships, the world-cruisers, oil-bringers, war-makers, the private and public yachts, the racers, fishers, fighters, pirates and smugglers, the ships of dull metal and boats with bright paint, with sail-quilts, mast-needles, nets, radar, Read more

  • There’s a live radio version from 2008 in this interview. Now this is a poem about coffee. There’s lots of those: poets drink coffee, it seems. But let me explain the subtext. So I was drinking coffee, and listening to the radio, and … Now this is a poem about sex, of course. Aren’t they Read more