Poems by Vik Bennett

[davidfcooper.livejournal.com]

The Alchemist

The sky, stictched from squares of bruised blue,
reminds us of change -
the way the future seems
both clear and dangerous.

Our eyes search out brief moments of sun,
the spaces between,
in which our word becomes flame,
suddenly hopeful.

Like the alchemist,
we long to find the secret
that will turn our base metals
into gold.

(Fragile Bodies, Wild Women Press, 2004)


State of Emergency

For this
I will risk
everything.

I will kill the despot in my head,
let my body riot for independence,
throw tear gas into the squares of my eyes,
send my limbs scattering down cobbled streets.
Before long my blood will break from its cells
and storm the walls of my heart.

Lights flash behind my eyes, warning ships
away from the needle-cliffs of my bones.
Wreckers strip these shores. They've looted
the stores, snatched words from silk pouches,
stolen the eyes of memory and left
the sweet smell of narcissi in the air.

People are frightened,
hiding behind closed doors, whispering my name.
They want to take charge, send in the police
before it becomes dangerous.

All those men and women, busy
watching from their window-boxes,
terrified of civil unrest.

I will do my best
to give them
what they expect.

c. Vik Bennett
(first appeared in Orbis Magazine, No. 130, Autumn 2004)

Comments

[liliths-nymph.livejournal.com]

i absolutely love that first poem.

thankyou. x