Louisa

The love that tricked us, absolved and arrayed, brings trouble or forgiveness, when seasons turn think, don’t keep it chained, to the Calendar or sink, at grey games of business, that cap your flame, keep the hurt to minimum, dance around the ice rink, when problems rage, does Speed makes you blink, at forgotten arrangements, we've all heard your tales, drunk at Catechism, is loving the terminus, when cafe's swell with rain, or unshaven criminals, whisper your name ?

Lorraine

When she dismisses us, calls us jokers and thieves, we thank you Sister, for shining that star, or crossing the sea, supplying the tar, telling us how to lose, or reside out of reach, when we're confused, she cares who we are, arms swinging free, raising the bar, above telegraph wires, or a sky that deems, to see our ruin, her powdered rush, as sunlight leaps, make our faces flush, she knows it’s not easy.

Leucha

In the Catholic rooms, proclaimed by the sea, grant me what it took, for saying those terrible things, in the shadow of Saint Anthony, who falls across my ring, as by dawn and falling gloom, we wait at the infirmary, footsteps echo in empty shoes, the doctor's say nothing, sometimes it's not to be, love is detached from us, our mother's babies we swoon, hear summer's dark seething, sitting in the television room, it echoes our silly tunes, even gleanings of the wheat, no loss in our fortune, her smile beyond reach.

Lisa

Lara

When did i start crying, was it going back to Ireland, or my son saying, Nana loved the horses, first summer without her lies, on the ferry, kids' resources, or my lover praying, can you please stop sighing, she knows the score, a bucket for the poor, gone is the time, she opened our door, or declaimed us on altar rails, cathedrals to cover her disguise, no matter what she says, now she's on her flight, love makes no one wise, is winter still to gaze, what goes on inside ?

Karen

You wait upon my duress, and take me for your needs, in a yellow party dress, spit saliva on the rush mat, the cabin is your creed, you know where i'm at, children left without success, power to your seed, you only crave excess, sobbing on the flat, with the tide comes grief, across this shining bush land, my dreams echo less, on this desert scree, hurling rivers in my head, but nothing like your caress, we sit and drink all evening, you did not want to rest, the wounds of my conquest, bewitched by your reading, my rung feet at rest, love spare me.

Katrina

Take your children and dogs, just be who you are, in a warm Travel Lodge, that's what you'll have again, a sea rose for your car, the river's falling rain, you help me lift the fog, what's gone on so far, someone who kisses the frog, on the wall west of pain, your picture's lonely scar, I won't see you again, or will you give a nod, turn me into what you want, brittle life beneath your clod, your dance a diamond cross, all my fires are marked, but don't be my bog, or exploding fallen star.

Kristina

God my today's blue pennant, sailing with a lover's trauma, don't i feel blessed, smiling dangerously, with twigging lymphoma, my troubles are periphery, to her howling zest, she hurls complaints enormous, but needs me to rest, when it comes to need, she'll isolate some performance, that magnify worries easily, there's justice on her crest, the cabin jukebox roars, all around wait to confess, I press my yellow dress, a fist inside me claws, blows like a serpent's nest, opens the vodka drawer.

Katya

You used to write me then, of furs and feather and winters, bloody in a tenement, an injured frozen shock, you wrote of smoothing kisses, and sybarites of the knock, Brighton Beach you credit, with dollars, beds,fancy business, Villa's if you can get them, where you go to unlock, men cast in lonely splinters, and walk home crocked, laying down drained and spent, do you only help resisters, you my rootless friend, wearing boots and leathers?

Karina

She sees the creep of moon, regular as the five and dime, lilac night coming soon, fish on Friday beaches, the kids who drink wine, girls with yellow pleats, men want women as boons, to enlighten their lives, someone with her bloom, and sense of ease, slaps hands that wander behind, smiling summer feasts, but the goal, the ball, she won't even mind, if she leaves this fall, and laughs in the gloom, that sometimes chimes, with her own Brigadoon, written high in the sky.

Janessa

Here's a thought you know, do you wonder who comes first, with all your places to go, wish I’d never been born, ask if i ever thirst, when summer turns to storm, your canticle the sea alone, gives a time for birth, or knows who tends your bones, will you try again with scorn, to run me cursed, understand what's torn, by book or by 'phone, from these lonely suburbs, would see me dance alone, your body is laid low, sky and stars converse, they reach beyond sunset's glow, it’s not me you scare.

Jaylene

Who do you want to suffer more, me or your blessed father, outside this symphony of whores, from a perfect sunny evening, the kids looked after by others, all you think is believing, that you know the score, in life between the covers, is it really who you are, wiser than your sins reveal, communion from your lovers, do black Ray Bans conceal, sunlight across your course, September make you wonder, will winter bring on worse, sip Daiquiri through a straw, swirl the sour ball colours, something to make you pause, could this be for ever ?

Jeannie

She follows a need that's sown, a mountain blanket for cover, wrapped around her bones, pulled from dull matrimony, she passes between the others, her picture at the registry, by jail or sentence crowned, she never knew her mother, sunshine dances on the stones, who says we're history, just kids from yellow trouble, we'll dance our insanity, on a ship or by what's known, candle light paths to offer, the miracle of our loans, we won't beat or blow, or bite at any other, but find love we've known, on fine blue mornings.

Julia

A breeze between the ruins, lifts me through the night, is this all it takes to love, then the hearing corrects, silent as an Arctic Skite, other times a roaring cataract, we wrap ourselves in blue, under fear of dying, doves in orange trees coo, sooth a city's muffled excess, a snuffled dry crying, more than another mess, how different this pale room, scene of nowhere lousy fights, fire raging trying to sooth, in other bars twilight tunes, she bites me, i ask her why, her lips are like Neptune, she looks me in the eye.

Jacey

My bus has long gone, now leave me alone, each place is my queendom, life isn’t all champagne, don’t pity this poor Joe, standing in the rain, who hangs a good one, around her bones, or care where she's from, some need the evening game, give me a little Blow, forget any even break, we don't go to proms, but tread the stones, live life on the bum, it's not for everyone, do you like the waterfall, maybe you should try it on, not being born.

Jana

In this autumn paradise, night is black and blows, stars stick out like ice, no matter how we moan, the trees blow fierce and cold, they know we will not roam, what's wrong with being nice, wanting a home, absent features when we cry, with our luck or groan, even on the ‘phone, time to lay things down, different places make us try, tell us what we own, do we need to find out why, even in this short time, to wonder what we know, can we name our lies, don't let me die alone.

Jane

You always think of Spain, she interrogates my face, about our separation, it's not easy for me, avoiding drink's embrace, to what might have been, full of trouble my migraines, her catholic eyes dilate, like some furious weather vane, on my part, she agrees, you inhabit some other place, my upstairs room a dream, icon to her blessed reign, 'Oh please don't hesitate, with your tired refrains', she says with unleavened grace, her beaten words create, a wind down the highway, it whispers escape.

Justine

Talk like that she maintains, and you'll make me kill, there won't be a refrain, powdered lightly skin toned, no shadow of light resists, fragranced by cold tar soap, she doesn't insist or feign, twelve days the question twists, epiphany go mad or remain, betrayers by her every 'fone, worst of all the Sisters, smiling like dogs with bones, a courtesan who catches trains, her suburban life a whip, leaves will block the drains, ships can't unfurl sail, nor poets chant their lists, until her storm abates, she worries about the kids.

Juna

It doesn't soothe me, the wind or the time, the lime and cypress trees, Medical Centre beyond the ships, a metropolitan light, whispers, forget her lips, i drink red sherry, lousy by stumbled night, against the blue infirmary, a young woman gets lifted, by her brute of a Dyke, into a paramedics grip, her drift into Casualty, breathes a gentle whine, how can this be, music's broken symphony, a future on the line, who cares to give testimony, or love without why?

Ita

Why hurt me with your truth, don't leave me with your schemes, or melt me lemon crude, with your bows and parlay, and easy ballet scenes, would you run a silver train, across my lips of wasted tunes, dance feather like as a bee, quarry me pink cheap perfume, bring me home again, and tastefully ease, my hands towards the flame, with your shiny satin shoes, splayed like tambourines, make me sing the blues, once more won't kill you, if taken to my knees, listen to my hips of glue, fire my extremes.

Indiana

Smoking a cigarette i exhale, a lover's old face comes near, uplifted on a nail, geese wheel the sky, haunt the clouds like deer, i knew her passing by, yellow wrap around her frame, she came this way for years, ice and blue her name, colours of no reason why, can anyone steer clear, that unforgiving dye, absorbed by a forgotten name, it's never easy to adhere, what we think of again, a woman who always gave, blew flames around my fears, shared jokes heard the train, then disappeared.

Idaho

You give a smile at Faro, the beam bounces in our room, salt from last night’s tide comb, when you rise from the covers, face a relic of alternate gloom, are you solace or a lover, useless at catching the tone, a matted highway of warm refuge, you reveal all your bones, for dreaming you wonder, on some road you’d rather lose, or like me see plundered, love you gave to lonely souls, carpet salesmen consumed, beneath your weave of rose, the sea crashes all alone, a disco for your retinue, green and gold like the foam, explosion of your perfume.

Irena

I was sinking slowly, we are leaving there again. drink wine think about going, but i haven't got the energy, she makes such generous claims, this friend who gently, arranged her Da to give me, a five and dime dollar home, somewhere near the sea, where she works happily, and rides on bycycle lanes, living an easier life, men who want to touch her glow, reel when they see the pain, dance on lonely bones, nothing is like being alone, with a lover uncontained, she paints her face and groans, i sit and watch the rain.