From The Sylvia Hotel Poems, published by Quattro Books in 2010.

Betting that a hunch will strikesmall groups of foreigners sitting round a fire Snow pack heavy in the mountains this yeardeath lacks only an opening line time to update the résumé Sun goes down laser straight little hope of rescue file an incident report Clouds crash into one anotherat this distance pantomime is all we get somebody stole the remote again Chainsaw sounds coming from the vacuum!hotel terror! negligent grace! the luxury of distraction! The moon was shining all over uslucky drunken daylightfeasts while others fast Champagne and Chinese foodthe drip becomes a spectaclehelicopters nervous but not us Around obstacles where possibleover them when necessarywater trying its best to be quietNow where? nowhereapocalypse on both your houses distant fairgrounds Aperçus await recycling metaphor whores linger at the entrancegarbage strike now five weeks long Change for the changeless help make the homeless homeful againswap spare motif for a little bit of process? Only five percent of collections on exhibitthe good stuff kept in the dungeonsbeneath the dance floor Memory triggers comfortstill hum the tune her phone number playedpolice station coffee on a frosty morning This is the room all rightcured within the privacy of the momentyou were in fine voice that evening Up streets and alleys in betweenmoving like participles cavity scarcity scar city Drained of words at end of dayeverybody wants more sentencesthe unexpurgated life is not worth livingYesterday’s chaos granted an extensioncherry blossoms return to Nelson Streetso concludes my weekly report Alleys are valleys between streetsrivers flowing backwards from the seadisappear as mountain trickles Leaving me to imagine what spaces containreveal just enough to keep yourself safe has the bamboo taught you nothing? Years of prep work for these few secondsno exceptions to universal truths failure keeps us young Noon at midnightlying there in pachinko parlours harsh light makes shadows for the dead