Richard Skinner has published four books of poems with Smokestack: the light user scheme (2013), Terrace (2015), The Malvern Aviator (2018) and his latest book, Invisible Sun, which was released in June 2021. Richard is Director of the Fiction Programme at Faber Academy.
Band Aid
My minds? Simple.
My heads? Talking.
My lips? Flaming.
My lizards? Flying.
My machine? Soft.
My house? Crowded.
My Mondays? Happy.
My weekend? Vampire.
My youth? Sonic.
My music? Roxy.
My mode? Depeche.
My order? New.
My Dan? Steely.
My Floyd? Pink.
My valentine? Bloody.
My punk? Daft.
My enemy? Public.
My underground? Velvet.
My furs? Psychedelic.
My dead? Grateful.
White
Come and show me the magic
Chairman Mao.
Half of what I say is meaningless
oceanchild.
Life in a Oncetime
Here it is silent
the water is flowing
My large blue wife
is holding the wrong hand
rocks stones water money
You yourself go underground
removing and not removing
This isn’t the same ocean
that is ever flowing
I let the dissolving days go
behind me where there is
the wheel of a lifetime
My large silent wife
my right blue days
dissolving at the bottom
Here it is silent
the water is flowing
down under the rocks stones
find how the days work
flowing as a beautiful highway
that comes into this house
You ask me where I am
What to hold on to
Here it is silent
the water is flowing
My large silent wife
my right blue days
rocks stones water money
You yourself go underground
dissolving at the bottom
My large blue wife
is holding the wrong hand
Here it is silent
the water is flowing
down under the rocks stones
find how the days work
removing and not removing
This isn’t the same ocean
flowing as a beautiful highway
that comes into this house
behind me where there is
the wheel of a lifetime
that is ever flowing
I let the dissolving days go
You ask me where I am
What to hold on to
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