By Marie-Louise Plum
Exquisite uncanny,
never to be grasped:
wispily alight driver
that keeps one alive.
Desire, object of ether,
unattainable, unmeetable,
unseen caregiver shady deliverer
of plentiful salt scatterings.
Rubbed ferocious hard
into physical matter, those
garish spectacular uncommon wounds
of heavy heart in glowy bloom.
Utopia, what? Even More
had his trouble —
for absence of pain no
pleasure can couple.
Most deliciously of all
that pernicious stubborn call —
summoned bringer of deliverance.
It is but a trickster, that urge to feel both
open Innocence and wretched Experience.
By Marie-Louise Plum
Car-crash kick-start
glishy splash back dark
the mouth felt soft gum-lipped tooth-snack,
slack space seeking light licks twist
slithering creeping crystalline shimmering
glow of glitter gutter and gleam
but glean. now some slicker filthy obscene
silk-slippered knave clean powder perfume power
fizzing flame a chest fire crank-splutters
spitting spraying meteor showers
they’ll utter you should know better
but the pleasures the words the passions
the pain in ferny fronds fine
tendrils unfurl lithe limb-wrapped
gentle death-grip wrestling
letter tethers loosened billowing calling
caressing push here pull there
stress testing
cure-all wounds deep profound panacea
stalling falling oh no I’m falling
failing yes time please didn’t I mention
switch clock tick-back trick-shot knees-cracked
we’re on a timer here jack boots
down-hammering crashing
splinter slipshod shards snapped lashing
glittering glass glistening-sharp
only one way to end it’s
fleet of foot foxy glitched and grubby
slipping out swinging back door-stoop sitting
sour now
stalling
silent
spent
all
but the rain the rain the rain
the rain the rain the rain
the rain the rain
By Marie-Louise Plum
It’s a gem of a pearl
a jewel
of lace web weaving
the warp weft tender
renders your heavy
hand touching heaving
don’t apply your heft
hover over gently
this eggshell fragile
gift to hold
totally
impermanently.