CosmiKnot

  I’m like a fish out of water Think about it for a moment Do you see a fish on a bicycle? Gliding through the medieval theme tune Of an English university town? Or do you perhaps see a dace? Glistening in the small pale wet hands of a 13-year-old boy Offering up the catch to the lens of his father’s smart-phone A grin spreading like mildew over a photograph in the attic J R Hartley remains stock still in his grave at this moment  A fish out of water floundering on the unhooking mat on the bank It is not necessary to use one but against regulations not to As I wake into each day I am such a fish Lured from the velvety depths of my freshwater natural habitat Dreaming of my other son’s desire to buy a sports car Or my own promotion to transgender Professor I flounder motionless under the duvet and gasp for something. Air? A reason? A light? My gills flap as I struggle to readjust  to my new circumstances in a world of actual pain. Living is the oxygen of pain see. My gills ...

His Whole Tooth I felt the fiver rustle between thumb and forefinger As I padded into your bedroom Preparing to make the switch A note would be easy to slide across the sheet Want a smooth operation  if this to be my last tooth-based transaction I could picture the paper under the pillow You always were a good sleeper Mum is out with the girls So I’m standing in for the stand in tooth fairy Swaying in the shadows The bathroom light is on of course I wait to see if you are going to stir Then I slide my hand underneath Below the soft rock I crawled from under Your head rests on a rock for a pillow As you dive into you dreams Deep inside an octopuses garden You are sleeping like a wreck On bottom bunk submerged in inky darkness. But I can’t find the tooth My hand scuttles like a skittish crustacean Fleeing a divers torch light Then there it is glinting The jewel stashed in a hole in the reef I slide the note along the silk...