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MUSEVOICE

New Poetry by Cohen Rowland


Untitled Dolphin Poem


break the back of a dolphin

strong and free

and breathe heavily to bole up enough spit

reverse over it using a car not worth your time

 

should you do that

you should see the pain you cause

 

is reading the same amount as writing –

as watching a dolphin counts as taking one into your hands

if you must read before bed, before me

do not dismiss the looks you pass

or the lack you pass off now

causing me late into the night

to start to write, not having the energy

to read from home

 

pass me into your hands

and your mind through your eyes

pass me into your life

for a time

like a transparent

and find what might be written

given time enough to read

 

and if that’s not what is wanted

in the end you’re strong and free.



---



Bin-Ladens


The crown of the sun rests its chin

on gilted, pottery roofs in which

were you to stand and fall through

you would find a woman with cups and crockery

leafing notes of currency that need be spent

Spanish water in bottles at her sandalled feet.

 

Counted, they would be distributed before the sun

releases its attachment from the roofs now baked

and begins its arc journey through the sky.

Chlorine might mist towards them

the contractor of a swimming pool being happy with his work

satisfied with paper in hand.

 

Ten miles along the road in heat,

tarmac sticking to the soles of those who walk it

the nearest foodshop greets it weekly paymakers.

Their stocks and insides develop, pitting words against

an aged small lady producing notes larger than her hand

and doing so thickly

 

though she tries to be furtive, discreet

especially when gifting a teapot to an English neighbour

its smooth, running surface to its pressed innards

laden with paper in swathes, weighing

most of the weight of the teapot

leaving it searched and valued


even so today as it sits prepped at a window

the house now sold from the neighbour

to a beady broker, intent on passing the property

to another English family for part-time living

after deciding against the neighbouring empty house.

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