Jeffrey Side

 

THERE WAS A FEELING OF SYMPATHY BETWEEN US

Winter again
drunk
to shed

ramble makes
deeds
sail well wash

action dies matted
of a
fist lens paint

swear foam
bursts the
goat

midnight dog
backs
up shaking years

radiation source
fingers
defence city loners

death crosses
mark network
down

trench statues
commingling with the
dead

hotel gate presidents
reserve shells
and trench statues




YOU KNOW ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE

Her coat spreads
power around
elegance of
compromise.

Second ridge
ghosters
take the city
and are grateful.

The no seen cars
speed town
borders vanish
fast control.

The weather
was the
first accident.




CUTTING UP THAT CROP

Nobody knows
what a nice
day it
is except me.

I came back
to see you
while
you were away.

You have
spoken well,
if that's what you feel.

We'll make no
more arrangements.
We carry on regardless,
anyway.

I didn't learn
my lesson,
and you
didn't learn the truth.




SOMETIMES THINGS ARE HARD TO PUT DOWN

Be careful where you chew,
as they're looking
for someone else
who never lets it sleep.

Turning gears and sticks,
she doesn't know which
way to go

Now I measure all my
leather, making sure it fits.

When I get the envelopes,
I'll look out for the slits.

She is on the lawn,
looking up at the birds.

She can never be here,
if you are always there.

I measure her up with
my head,
and I give her rifle,
and I give her bait.




ROMAN SKY

Do you remember that walk?
That walk you called separation?
That walk you called independence?
That walk you called “being stronger”?

Did you really believe any of it?

Did you declare how you were
free and how
you had no machine to
control your day?

Did you try to prove
a point
while weeping into
your hands
in the desert?

And did you find someone to
make the sky like
Rome for you?


 


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