Poems, September 2025

If everyone on earth
Were to say a single word
Eight billion fragments
Would come into existence
Ten thousands bibles
In a single moment

My fingers hold memories
But only up to five
And not for very long
And not very well
But they help carry these things
When my mind
Is already occupied

He used to hear his coworkers
Awkwardly navigate small talk
Misunderstanding each other's
Meaningless talking points
	
He used to see their silence
Over the lunch tables
Looking for ice breakers
In between sandwich bites
	
Small talk seemed like a waste of time
So he didn't talk to anyone
Silence seemed to drain energy
So he ate lunch alone
	
He passed his days in the office
Without small talk or awkward silences
Without sharing anything of meaning
Watching other behind unbroken ice

Sometimes when I read poetry
I marked my favourite poems
by folding the corner of a page
Which left a mark of my own

I told myself it would help me
To review my favourites
Internalise their styles
Elevate my intellect

But I soon realised that the best predictor of these marks
Was not a poem's quality 
Nor was it my current emotion
It was the previous mark

The often followed each other
in quick succession
Or they would break
A chain of uncreased pages

I now realise that the practice
Managed frequency
Rather than marked quality

I now realise that the practice
Drew my focus to my own markings
Rather than the writing on the page

Sometimes when I read poetry
I did not read poetry

Now I leave the pages untouched
I am content to lose my favourite poems
Buried unmarked within the pages of a book
Shuffled amongst the volumes on the shelf
Perhaps never to be read again
But now finally assured to have been read properly
At least once

One day I poked my eyes and the jelly inside oozed out
My eye deflated and the world crinkled in on itself
So I called my friend to fill my eyes but he had no eye jelly
He ran to the fridge and returned with cranberry juice
He pumped the cranberry juice into my eyes
I watched the world around me fill out and turn red
Everything was red
And I didn't like that
So I poked my eyes and let the cranberry juice run down my face
I asked my friend to fill my eyes with water
Everything became crystal clear but only when I was still
My vision would blur as I moved
My world became unstable
So I put my head in a freezer and turned my eyes into ice
Now the world was stable
But my eyes had expanded and were stuck in place
I could only look in one direction
If I wanted to see something else I would turn my neck
Over time my neck hurt
And the ice melted
Cold tears ran down my face
So I pumped my eyes with beer hoping to see a better world
Initially things were bubbly and fun
But over time they went brown and flat
It made me feel numb
So I poked my eyes let the sticky amber drain out
Finally I filled my eyes with air and sealed the gap when the pressure was right
I can now see in colour and I can move around freely
But like a balloon I worry that they will explode if poked this time
I won't be able to fill them again if they pop