1.

Poppies shimmer from the light
Of the moon. Tasmania, dark
Avocado blues stir the bush fire

Elizabeth enters the water with a hand
Of dead flakes. Glass stones
A worn Copy of Bolano. Looks

Like a Californian sunset, Elizabeth
Removes Elizabeth's jacket, her boots
She steps across a ripple of rose garden

*

Vertigo, red on the lilac fields
I climb on lamp lit wing beats
Asperities - skin as soft as sponge

Every night she hurts me, every night
I am delicate, in fear of the great white
The terror in the sob and pain, dust

Falling as dust between the sunbeams
Into the chink of the cat's green eye
Elizabeth, come to where I can see Cartage

Elizabeth, come to where I can see Alexandra
Drowning in sea lions, passing into neon night
Come to the hills dripping with nuclear sound




2.

Moon ink under laudanum
Death in the 70s - filmstars and vomit
Empty lesbian relia, glitter kicks

Nail varnish - tipping over a bucket of bleach
Into the waves of rosé, Brighton beach,
Lipstick and sapphires, magnesium

UV rays, six feather skirts, six
Greenhouses in the sea-light gold
The cloud colour dancing, divine

April starburst, separating comets
Come let me kiss you: Elizabeth, for Israel
For the white beads on the Gaza snow

*

Elizabeth let me bleed minims
Into your fractured mouth, my suns
Are ships sinking in your silver swirls

Come let me bless your head
In the apple bucket, ladies and lords
Asleep on the morning linen

Of oil, the melody of gods, cellists
April snowfall, lava in the blackberries
Filmstars and saliva, vodka and vomit

Elizabeth:  let me lead your hand through the strawberries
The red ones fat with moon juice, the red ones
 Thin with velvet, let me wet…

*

The walnut and treacle tint of the hexanes
A sugar spoon full of mg, lead and gold
Models legs plastic and joyless, trials

Coffee and vents, for where the green air
Collides with the green waifs, the water
In the glass is blue, Elizabeth, I need

To make this clear: I do not love you, not now
Not ever, I am blank in the black marble
Of the bath tubs black smack, I am white

And am softer than snow powder sighs
Softer than the flesh of Turkish delight
As it shivers under a bone marrow rainbow




3.

Elizabeth - I am yours though, because you
Are with me as the fireworks explode the sky
And the world blurs to yellow stains, the smiles

The Catherine wheels, spinning hypotheses
Catch me if you can. Petal, I will run away
My loveliness flowers all the lovely heads

My marigolds drool ocean blue into the violins
Into chopped staccato waves. I am worthless as
A word is worthless, yet I am yours, here - only

And in this line I am mine. My artichoke heart
Bruised on cotton wool, on colour wheels
Anointing my eyes with that colour they are

*

Elizabeth let your left foot twist the honey tap
Let indigo pour out between the wheel of your
Thighs, I like the water, I stroke butterflies

In deep black lagoons, in drowning moons
Sing to me of burnt parliaments, my oars are ripped
With raindrops: Virginia, Medina, St Lucia, Tokyo.

All is a shimmer in the Parnassian school
The swordplay of little purple dukes, Belgravia
Under the stars, the lamps lit up like Casper

America, a dream of oboe blows and viola
Elizabeth puts her jacket back on, ties up
Her hair in a loose knot, her skin is glittery




4.

I have never seen a woman more beautiful
Than Elizabeth. She steps over the towel

I want no more blank clouds in my mind
I want no more of anything, anything but

Elizabeth, the moonlight is closing the curtains
Feet, patter, nymphs
Sound and colour collapse, I am
The nuclear bride to a nuclear husband, I

Sit alone with my wife. I answer to no one
The words shatter like walls around me
I am still. I am in love. In silence I paint the dawn 


© Charlie Baylis 2014