The Chiaroscuro Of Pain

Penultimate day, final evening
Yet, after last night
There is apprehension

Or better to say tension
Tension between my night body
And my day body

Already today I feel better
Yet how to explain the desperation
Of the nighttime

Surrealist poetry, tied
Intrinsically to the sciatica
Titles of poems which prohibit
Any further reading

Aches throughout the body
Which defeat any challenge
Before the thought has progressed

Already today the fear begins
That this thing which I call sciatica
Will rob me of my sleep should it return

Already I am thinking of titles for poems
Such that when the time comes
I will be ready to strike first

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Christopher's Collected Works Website

Praise Be Songs Of Love

All four corners do not catch me
Not that is
Until I hear the Gregorian chant

Now, even with my headphones on
The curved roof does something
To the atmospherics

There is a part of me
Which desires to lay on the marble floor
Spread-eagled, awaiting your visitation

Unfortunately, or not
The door is without a lock
So we could be caught out

Perhaps we should wait until nighttime
When darkness will gift us
Solitude and camouflage

For surely no one would approach
Let alone even enter
Without shining their torch

Yes, I understand your trepidation
Experience often unleashes fears
Although I will try to steady the ship

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Christopher's Collected Works Website

Lesson Feedback

Thank you for the biology lesson
Although I am sure
That I will have more questions

The words though dried up
The thoughts dried up
I did not receive the wetness of the lips

Wow the sea is magnifique
All those blues and greens and whites
All that rampant energy let loose

Beware of the heavy metals
Beware of the meditative persuasions
Savour your time for the Flaming Lips

Wow the sky is all it could be
One entire translucent blue
Jam-packed with peace and calm

So you did your A levels
Then a long spot of nurse training
To give you certainty about marjora

All of this from one simple question
About the exact location of your vulva
Also the other parts in that vicinity

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Christopher's Collected Works Website

Mornings Like These

The next line
Is the next line
But that last line
Will not be
The last line
Yet in the moment
It was the last line

Such immediacy
Often catches us out
Do you agree
Do I agree
Do we all concur

One more black dress
On the curved walkway
Over the pool
As if on the catwalk
For a Paris fashion house

One more sparrow
With insufficient crumbs
To provide any sort of wing
Yet still the territory
Is rigorously guarded

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Christopher's Collected Works Website

First Lessons

And then you were ready
With your flippers
With your face mask
With your oxygen bottle

And now you are heading out
From the thirty-metre mark
Towards the diving area
In the deeper water

Still you are on the surface
Though I only know that it is you
Because I know that it is you

Any moment now you will be gone
Already the camera loses you
In the sun-speckled waters

Does this count as loneliness
Does this count as exhilaration
Could I go further and say ecstasy

Of a sudden my back pain is gone
Your joy is my joy
Your sense of adventure is my adventure

Available on Amazon

Christopher's Collected Works Website