having hared through the day
let me be your armchair
by the night window—unhaul,
coorie in; into this cradle
of salt & buffer inject
those wayfarer bones; douse down
the day’s flare of voices—
see the restless gritters sleep
or, better still, delete themselves;
be held, a pebble lagooned
in water’s midnight minerals;
behold moon plated in the eyes
of an owl—starlight’s lapidary scrawl
rallying the dark like hot ash caught
on spiderweb; the luminescence
graffiti-ing your slippers
& sloshed onto the chin’s timber;
hush now, as, on my lap, you begin
a dreamer’s mumble,
somnambulant lips kiss the air
until finding my skin
Michael Pedersen is a Scottish poet and author. His first book of prose, “Boy Friends”, was published by Faber & Faber in 2022. His third poetry collection, “The Cat Prince & Other Poems”, will be published by Corsair in July
[See also: The meaning of Essex]
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This article appears in the 31 May 2023 issue of the New Statesman, The Rise of Greedflation