Sometimes I love water more than people
I love fat raindrops pocking the pavements
like falling gooseberries
some days I can’t stop saying petrichor
its three syllables so mysteriously right
surely Dior was thinking of sunlight on the Seine
as he rippled metres of shot silk
along the cutting tables of his atelier
I love being hydrated dehydrated rehydrated
look how sparrows drink
then hold their throats to the sky
gargle thanks to the clouds
how bees sip as if they are meditating on pollen
have you noticed how statues gaze over water
as if they’ve just spotted a loved one
or are dreaming of home
how Monet strokes the surface of water to life
as if it’s skin
I would like to make the ocean my kingdom
to rust awhile peaceful forgotten wreck
when water loves it will not let you go
whispering in ancient languages
until you are blinded by salt
don’t know up from down
I like water to flow
have an aversion to ice
but love how snow melts on my face
a chill baptism
I love the curiosity of water its stubborn patience
how it underestimates its power to harm
though maybe it too
has nightmares
about flooding and dying glaciers
I want to rewild our tapwater
savour the grittiness of puddles
I love dogs joyful immersion in water-bowls
their messy lapping
how when they play in water they never ask how deep?
Radio
No one sits down to listen. The radio voices its concerns.
Sings a little. It churns on regardless. The radio has a night-
time voice. Is passing on vital information. Is listening to
everybody. Is warm to the touch. The radio howls silently.
Repeats itself. Nobody pays attention. No one. The radio is
offering sound advice, a pulse. I iron my skin, file my
eyebrows. I catch the radio softly arguing with itself, in the
mirror. The radio is on in all the rooms, in the kitchen, all
over the house. The alleged time is very credible. No one
even notices the radio is crying now. The radio plays all night.
I wake up and hear my dreams on the radio. One day, I will
lie down all day and listen to the news. Conduit, sing me a
little lullaby.