David Mac

Love, Like Death, Is Hard To Explain

The ages are limping birds

with broken wings

The ages are bones with

no place to go

The ages are your smile, my love

and all that black lipstick

But death hangs in the trees

all day long

And sometimes it sings

 

Alone You Start To Smile

 

Loneliness is

the edge of nowhere

 

Loneliness is

outside of the crowd

Loneliness is just

lost in flesh

And loneliness

is a bar

first thing in the morning

Loneliness is

nowhere to go

Loneliness is the night

but more so the day

Loneliness is a room

is dead walls

is a window without a view

Loneliness is a job

that wants to kill you

is an empty wallet

Loneliness is

mad as babies

hidden as clouds

Loneliness a stone

in the sun

cracks in a desert

Loneliness

the hills and

whispering

trees

Loneliness

my black shadows and

all they remember

But loneliness

loneliness

loneliness

is

a man

on top

of the world

She Said Hell

She said hell, or

at least she

wanted to.

She wanted to

but could not,

so we went outside.

And it was the town

that said it,

first.

It was the town

that said it, like

we all wanted to.

And everyone in it,

moved, stained red,

living for nothing,

dying for it all.

She said hell,

because we could not.

We could not.

Would not.

And the birds

stabbed holes in the skies

like

you wouldn’t believe.

White light shone

down to all this

hurt.

Like

you wouldn’t believe...

David Mac-

Pin

 

Through the aperture I

think it’s true that

nothing involves us, we

are formed in calmness.

The elements have

dispersed, the structure

is softer now,

the chaos has melted and

sits upon the

head of a pin, so

it’s no wonder people

seek us out.

But when they find us we’ll

just look up at them

and ask:  Are you

looking for sanctuary now?

and break them off a piece,

remembering: we’re slow

as stone and that

we used to be so quick.

Speech

 

Your face contains signs and

Secret transmissions

Giving messages and signals

To me and

Only me

The crackling distortion

From your mouthpiece

Omitting codes

And frequencies

That I will figure out

In time

When it would be so simple

To just say:

‘I’m immortal right now

Tomorrow I

Might not be!’

But your eyes flash and throb

Your lips rattle words

I hear and

Finally understand

(You see, I speak the

Same language you

Have been speaking

All along, I can’t lie)

You look into

Me and

Talk into

Me

Words, words

Oily words

So hurry up and tell me

Everything, darling

We only have

Eternity. We

Don’t have long

Throats Cut

 

Stay a while and waste me some more.

We are calm as stars but I’m

trying to look deep into your mind.

All this night, all this landscape,

sky, horizon, stretching panorama,

and the water is so quiet, rippling,

silver reflecting, inky us, out here, tonight.

I think you know what I’m thinking:

I’m thinking, by this,

that I know what you’re thinking.

Yet still we remain silent, throats cut,

almost broken hearted;

we won’t say how we feel.

But it’s cold here now and too real,

so let’s get back. This is it. I’ll

take you home or

somewhere that is not home.

Anywhere is home for you now.

You can’t be kept.

 

David Mac-

  

She awoke from her candlestick dreams, the girl broken mirror eyes,

and said, ‘Did I miss much life?’

I looked at her, her face like a melting doll’s, and replied,

‘It is the rest of us who are asleep.’

---

The woman in the dream armchair said:

‘You must be one of those people

who doesn’t realise

that music’s playing

all the time’

---

I cut myself with the knife

again and again but the

blade wasn’t sharp enough.

And outside one bird flew off,

spooked by something,

and all the rest scattered.

   

---

She showed me poems she had written,

as if I was into that sort of thing.

Pages on the kitchen table in the morning

sunlight. We learn to live as we

learn to die.

 

David Mac-

Trickle

The black tar trickle,

brown river snaking,

down

through a

tinfoil valley,

crinkled silver,

the smoke curling

up.

‘Darling, slow down.

flow between

bones.

Hot gloom,

sweet smile.

Don’t say a word.’

And outside

the sun was dropping,

melting

down into the

earth with

shame. I

swallowed and watched.

I didn’t want to miss

this.

The shadows were coming,

creeping through

the walls,

eating and

stabbing

everything.

I cut myself with the knife

again and again but the

blade

wasn’t sharp enough.

And outside one bird flew off,

spooked by something,

and all the rest

scattered.

Thorns 

I clocked the girl as she passed me.

she smiled and looked down.

my cock stirred and saw her.

I smiled back.

I had never smiled before and it

felt strange.

But the guys around the pool table

all swivelled their mean heads to me.

They looked like ancient gargoyles

with twisted snarls,

faces like ripped thorns.

I went to the bar and slurped a pint,

my back to them,

the cocaine throbbing in my head:

a frenzy behind the eyes.

I hoped they’d hurt me tonight.

I longed for the taste of blood.

The Burning 

The junky had a

cross tattoo

on her neck.

Her eyes were like

sharp nettles and her

limbs like

drooping leaves.

Her mouth was full of

fish eyes.

She walked in and he

sorted her out.

She shook and fidgeted,

her body alive and

squirming as if

something that refused to

stay down

wriggled for survival

just under the

surface of her skin.

She paced and I

watched her,

writing her down.

She trembled and

her shadow trembled,

it rattled across

the wall,

looking for something,

we were all

looking for something.

But she had it bad,

her insides knocking,

and burning more

than we’d

ever know.

David Mac-

We Are Waiting to Burn

I only love you when you are burning,

When we are both on fire.

The way we spread, out of control,

The danger of our love.

But after,

When we smoulder,

Blackened, charred,

Smoking, and we

Shake ashen debris from ourselves,

There’s nothing left.                 

I told you I was bored from the start,

I told you not to put me out,

I told you not to save me.

I told you this.

I told you               this.

But now we’re soft and weak and harmless

Once more

And there is no love.

This is it,

The apathy has come.

You can’t stop,

Can’t comprehend,

Can’t ignore,

There is nothing worse.

What did we do?

You see, you have to wake

Up from time to time

In the world and know,

Yearn,

Dream,

That it’s only a matter of time

Before you catch fire,

Before you are set alight,

Before you will burn

So bright

Again.

Fist Full of Sleep

On a bed

she waits

with a fist full of sleeping pills.

My love

how to know

if I’ll ever wake up once more?

‘Just sleep’

she says.

She wants to rob me of my dreams

and replace

with some death.

I don’t know how long I want this to last.



Drunk At Last

your face numbs

to the world

your skull breathes

relief

you look out of your

hollow warm chamber

and you smile

for a long second

but you only think you smile

we see the rest

David Mac-

Silent Engine Finger

The silence after the noise

The good silence

The fat silence

The silence you can’t kill

Listen

Hear it?

Of course you can’t

But you can

Silence in the earth

From the earth

Deep down silence

All of it

Everywhere

The silence behind the light

Through the eyes

Underneath everything

Nothing but!

Repose

Inhalation

Finger pointed upwards

  –   

The sky bends

 –

The bones groan

 – 

The ghost coughs

 – 

The painting never moved at all

 –

The silence between us now

We are but cracks in a desert

  

On the Town after a Hit

The snakeskin sky

hissing.

Somewhere in the town

a fat girl gets fucked.

I slither on by.

Black oil in my mind

a heart of venom.

My dirty bones

ooze

my ghost tenses.

I wish to fall apart

to separate

but you won’t let me.

The moon wriggles

like a maggot on a hook.

The stars are pointed, they’ll

have your eye out, son

and there’s no such thing as

freedom if you look

close enough. So

wrap your arms

around me

and just go crazy.

And Love Flows Like Mud

She lay there

All that meat

All that flesh

He shuts the door

Lets his skin fall to the floor

He comes to the hot bed

His dick a mad wolf

Screaming and angry

Spiking her

She throbs and writhes

A pink fish speared

Her black eyes ooze

His tongue flicks

Wriggles into her mouth

A violent worm

They twist and jerk

Wild patterns

But her beauty dances

He juts

Splits

Shoots off into darkness

Bodies collapse

Break apart

And after

They smoke cigarettes

Strangers again

No words

Will his cunt remember?

Will her cock forget?