How we live now (2020)

these days I find myself typing poems faster than I can think

there’s an art to it being five minutes early but still apologising for being late

a glitch like turning on a kettle with no water in it just to watch it rattle a lag

amidst the chaos your dog moves like a lazy shark between the second-hand furniture

last week I covered the clock in the kitchen with a tea towel so that I could concentrate

today you said ‘I mean I miss my work friends but not as much as my actual friends’

I watch you end a zoom call with the only valid excuse (having another zoom call)

it’s easy to forget how dangerous a dog is until they’re biting a minor celebrity

this is the first year I can properly point to evidence of the seasons changing

maybe this glass of water by your bedside is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen

I’m a bit of a boomer in not trusting the government

but I love all the purple rinse in Extinction Rebellion

some people go years of their lives without anything bad happening to them

which if you think about it is a very bourgeois metric of success

I hate the way I look with a beard but feel this strange power in letting things pass

without expending any energy to change them a form of control maybe?

in the afternoon light my silhouette turns out to be just a shadow (a pretty boring one)

to have always said the right thing you must think about the past a lot less

to have absolute trust in what will happen next I imagine

being held guiltlessly in the grip of a benevolent present moment

there’s this grass that’s grown so long we lose your dog in it

he rustles his way through like a very meagre tornado

before pissing on a tree just as it is coming into bloom