Ghost Formula

Heaven-sent sunset red

Spin in the evening under the windowsill

Hawthorn valley floor

Rain beaded grass

Soft breath, motionless and wet

Empty jaws of the rivers maw

A backwards memory

Like Arabic writing

Tears of diamonds

Vanish into the gardens

I remember once when I was young

Something was wrong

Under an old fence

The unlit labyrinth of nonsense

Unformed nouns and vowels

Drip into the floor

Like insects from the nest of my skull

The light looked different in those days

As if an idea could imagine for itself

And in the afternoon

We all took off our skin

And set sail for Neptune

Using our flesh for a sail

The drizzle of wheels in the heat

Summer is the cruelest city of deceit

That pains that you claim will reclaim you

That gains that you gain will regain you

I’m making ghosts out of clay

To scare my past away