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.