Sub. Lim. Phil.

MAYBE YOU

are all alone
and cannot love
another for for another

to exist would implicate a duality
as surely as
when the detective

in a murder mystery
points the finger
and everyone is shocked

by old Mrs Haversham's behaviour.
But just because
we are all one

does not mean
you do not need
to try to

LOVE ME.

Home Cooking by Ruth Padel

You spread our Free Range Duck
Breasts with your trade-mark mix

Of honey, soya, Chinese Five Spice
While I etch
A fingernail down your spine

Ending in a fuck
The length of our kitchen table

Making the bread-board rise
To its feet, the dog beneath us whine,
And Sainsbury's poultry burn.

from Voodoo Shop

Le Poète

after Rodin

how is it girls

can conjure up

a baby

using just a spoon

of sperm?

that shit sure smells

like alchemy 

to me.

still, i've not had 

a warm bath 

or wank

for over a month now

and my nuts feel 

like a fun-swim

at my local

swimming pool

so perhaps 

some of the magic

is in 

me.