night heart – by Claire Gaskin
ISLAND | ONLINE ONLY
i.
two arms meet in a heart lit from above makes a crucifix a glass on a paper tablecloth the intersection between directions purity of purpose it’s a glass of water on a paper tablecloth in a café lit from above when you are really thirsty you want water no other drink he was talking about his wife I was his ex-lover the intersection of directions has a glass of water at its centre it radiates it’s not about a choice between directions it’s about what is essential at the centre of quenching
ii.
the fleas are there to distract you from the realities of self every extraction of blood of primary purpose is a plot the pores open like shutters when I sweat what is the heart but a series of knots valves and telescopic pulses
iii.
I missed remembering the anniversary this death in my chest like a rock the blow hole black water crater lake with a slick skin of hovering insects I lie on a hot rock in a body of bloody water back to heartfelt in this widow of sky there is a movement in the talk of the tallest gum the grey of the outer cloud the rotary clothes line and the silver underside of the banksia leaf this life on the tenth anniversary of her death I woke to my father asking her where she had been I decided to curl up around the childhood cat they didn’t tell me had died
iv.
the backyard full of crawling copulations aerial projections quite setting into seeing raised smoothly sheltered angry and addicted he is on her back as she crawls the cane chair the crickets in the early after creativity is disruptive of heart intolerant the keys on my desk and in my side silt twisted a creature person led by the inquiry the stay that is resistance the sound of cutlery in the kitchen how love’s apathy seeds a reason seeds a disembodied giveness ▼
Image: Turgay Koca - Pexels
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