Nina Lewis

Framework

Body

catch

love

stop.

Keep

want

remember.

Your shirt

clock.

Know

dive

glory.

Catch

love

stop.

Over time

pull

know.

Lesson

home.

Call

chain

body.

Love

catch

me.

Tell

everything

of your life.

Home

catch

stop.

Disguise

I cannot identify.

The image jars,

reminds me of bicycle chains

facing the wrong direction.

I admire the intrigue,

feel what I want to get to know.

Discover it.

It looks metallic,

this chameleon art,

I know my eyes

deceive the truth.

It is nature, it is leaf,

drops of water

on nature's skin

it beckons to be explored,

it is not as we see it.

Tasting Words

My smile broke

compromise slid away,

you started this new world.

The end

was thorn wrapped parcels

of half-truths and lies.

Music from that time,

sticks at the back

of my tongue.

Breaks my smile.

Neurasthenia

The words trapped

at the back of my mouth

button themselves up

in Emperor’s new clothes,

self-scathing they blacken

tear at the edges of sound

rampage.

The doctor prescribes.

I swallow

disappear inside myself.

Sleep.

The sense of touch evaporates

world not felt

escape route one,

the unconscious mind.

Pain a voided transaction

lost.

The medication becomes me

I lay down and let life live

this was my dark secret.

This mind filled with blind

bombarding thoughts

steering off-course.

City Swoons

I sleep in cities

nestled in the noise of them

in the action

the verb sirens and flashing lights

the heat of streets on fire

roads that never sleep

but I sleep, I sleep well.

In coastal cities sound plays

tricks with my waking ears

almost a wave, the sea crashing

is morning commuters.

I moved to the countryside

by mistake once

I thought I was ready

but I wasn't.

Relished anonymity

places no-one knew my name

or purpose

which was good

because I only knew

one of these myself.

A city street

unforgiving to a heel

is worth the pain

at 3 am.