Anthony Ward

Slender is the sight
as the ani-males
prowl and scowl
with the sounder of boars
brooding bevvied vixens
skulking to get the grist
Of larking exaltation
mixing drinks in a cocktail of osculation
re-cooperating in the curio-city
where stags roam about the beautiful landscape
in the hormonal carnal circus
where the naked streets
wear many guises

Taxi cabs flurry
like mustard past cafeterias
with striking neons
that blaze amidst haze
of amazing dystopia
in utopia
of magnification
MAGNIFYING
the entomology
the etymology
of communication

Late at night
When my mind dims to a candling flicker
I find myself comforted by
Shadows denoting a presence
Through the transubstantiation of darkness,
The sound of car engines churning over,
Their headlights shining through the window,
Illuminating branches wavering against walls
The sound of trains pacifying silence so close in the distance
Brings home the warm glow of petrol stations on lonely journeys
The luminosity of light-emitting diodes
Entrancing stratospheric reflections
Embracing hypnogenic catatonic paralysis
With introspective rainwater
Racing down culverts
Into depths of consciousness
The vast ocean of thought evaporating
Into multitudinous clocks
Elapsing at different intervals
Retaining time.

They say a hurried life’s a hindered one.
So why am I rushing myself through it?
Pushing myself out in order to get some peace.

Rather than finding peace, I’m in pieces.
My memories perpetuated by the present I give myself.
Traveling the speed of light
With no need to go anywhere.
The world at my fingertips,
Everything on tap.
Hanging out with stars in a cosmological cinema,
Fulfilling fantasies in a hollow graphic reality.
Living the dream.

O for the days when it was a pleasure to be bored
Before the sluggish fluency took hold.
Making me frantic,
Alone with my mosquito mind
Fizzing like a pill in my skull,
Fractured by the strain of concentration.

The argon lights dripped into pools along the pavement,
As he followed her after the rain.
When she crossed the road,
He stood at the crossing where the traffic light,
Like a straightened question mark made exclamation
-Became a cold eye bearing down the nervous system-
He wondered whether she played piano,
Maybe in a bar or beside a window…

When the world weighs heavy upon me
I light up
My feet go from under me
Followed by my legs
Tingling up my spine
Towards my neck
Until all that’s left’s
My face disappearing
Behind a puff of smoke.

The moment I step out of myself
I leave the door wide open
To allow others to walk in
And put themselves at ease

So that I no longer want to return
And remain outside
While they cause havoc
Discerning no respect nor regard for my personal space
Desecrating everything that once made me

Then I close the door on them
Locking them in
Unwilling to release them
Preferring to keep them restrained
Rather than let them out.

He was so wrapped up in himself he couldn’t fight his way out
Clung to himself like cling-film
Cocooned as a spider’s prey
Waiting to be devoured by the arachnid conscience of self realisation