Sue

Miles beyond her district zone, love catches on the breeze, like a river on its bones, inflated or in despair, she cries when she pleases, if it's absent on the stairs, then neither is it gloom, to that other disease, iron bed tight and honed, where she stands and declares, she'll never release, that little doll of hers, why she’s leaving home, all the plans and secrets, brings a quiet celebratory storm, at times in her underwear, the yellow light of feasting, sometimes makes her scared, but she believes.

Rhianna

Tell me what was that time, when I kneeled to pray, sweating all the time, did you watch me rocking, arms like pipes in the rain, it’s not me who’s shocking, the poets of Loire Maritime, say God is never afraid, there is a love inside, my tears are unblocking, we pay just the same, you see the birds flocking, they exist in different climes, freighters ride on ancient lanes, twisting between their lines, is this what makes you mock, any choice but to remain, anchors weigh us like clocks, you will need my reins.

Querida

A needle truth is never easy, especially on this campaign, your cold fish knife cleaving, held towards my thighs, believe me no child’s game, a flash of blinding light, what am I supposed to feel, enduring these days, with someone who seems, constantly in flight, afraid of fight or change, a gauze filtered prism, separate from love’s delight, what makes you delay, our crossing on fevered nights, it is better to dream, face you down make it plain, pull you to your salted knees, America on your blade.

Pamela

Our ship leaves the harbour wall, in darkness and green light, who would carry us at all, tell me, tell me why, sails spread in translucent flight, you rage against their spite, a high strung hammock makes you call, when bells ring the night, we will see our own downfall, love spreads across the Bight, Africa comes within sight, its warm embrace widening, why when I kiss your sweet jaw, across the shining moonlight, you talk of useless laws, something is not quite right, rubbed petals for sweet delight, beside you our baby cries, your face a tissue of lies.

Oceana

Summer clouds her blue eyes, she knows she is free, but love is the big why, what separates from her bones, is stuff that makes her dream, the sight of water, a hero home, surrounded by impassive skies, she feels the pull of certainty, not some folded alibi, Our Lady says she’s not alone, sing yellow plans and schemes, the wind her great bellows, memory’s arc of scurried nights, a map, a bottle, all the wean, the thrill of troubled flight, conscious that she’s bold, sees the line of harvest teams, won’t do that tells herself so, she’ll sail again the sea .

Naomi

Don't leave your dreams, with those most persistent, of serious mien and demeanour, they're for those who gloam, who travel huge distances, you never felt alone, you grace our daily scenes, how different in that instant, you altered all our visions, now love a shipwrecked rover, a sight of heaven mister, a pirate of golden bones, a wayward soul who deems, you are his angel’s conductor, if security comes between, the offering of someone torn, or good men of the justice, is it children and home, no one does it for us ?

Mary

Across my vision Athens, on my sleeve a chance number, we’re silent at its shedding, those faces a sweet shining, a garrotted wonder, as if they were swimming, I whisper to myself, how the world slumbers, fallen within a spell, we shelter beneath the limes, the sea’s gentle thunder, a storm within the fire, a nation brought to this, a night time of whispers, lost in this parched wilderness, it makes our days entwine, one sun washed conundrum, the sailors are swilling wine, our City can’t go under.