Submission Guidelines

Friday 14 March 2014

Reuben Woolley

essence
 
he sleeps in faces
observed · controlled
they think · his words
fly from hollow skull · he does not
see them · unspeaks them
wings are essential
he streams through solid skies
is the story of himself

--

eyes
 
I am magick · the
centre of all my bloodless faces
skin breaks
to skin beneath · see
my mouths are empty · the
words spoke me alive and I
control my flight
through all the tortured masks
I laugh · I am/am not
human and all my eyes
are alive · they breathe
me not here · don't
see me · I am magick

--

guides
 
my deaths sleep with me
I shall not forget · I
do not step lightly
through bones · I name
all the faces
they are my necessary
ghosts · they fall
like fruit sweet
plenty · putrid
beds of richness · I am not
guilty · I just
survive · just
breathe and sleep

--

drafts

he draws dead birds
flying . hollowed bones
arranged in wings
they do not move
clouds spit them out
like shrapnel . are not
satisfied . they plant
feathers
in rain . falling
light they bleed
on children’s cheeks
staring at the trails
white against blue

desperate time . they
only cry
only stumble in air
spiral in chains . shuffling
into view
these broken circles . these
untouchables
untouched

Images by Robert Ballen, which inspired the above poems, can be found here 

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