18 April 2025
submitted to APJ14.2 – ‘unthemed’ 19 April 2025

or just the ones denied

samarium gadolinium terbium dysprosium scandium yttrium lutetium

the late afternoon light of whoever whatever you cried over wept would be apt the shafts clean as a proof of a cathedral before flight if ever you had boarded one and wondered where the sky

is a wall empty enough of subtlety to stir the recognition of covenant because you’re lying on your back parallel with it paragliding its answer being a reason to breathe a barefaced truth not heard before you remembered

the song erupts a blur of mites in a fine bone china teacup sort of a reversed déjà vu you feel it might happen again oh the only thing you can be sure of is it certainly will happen yes you think

this is something to hold on to if only these impediments your hands would grasp the density is low and so the air within without your lungs is breathed the same but cannot grasp a pause while it is opportune

under a cloud blanket original as meat and twice as alarming because it can neither constrain its metre nor its rhyme

blow head, blow, blow my head out like a flame
i think the alphabet has lost
i think the girth of fortune bursts
i am inoculated against many lost causes
i am in the middle of this race
i am a note unlimited symphony within
but i’d rather be a song in a bottle

the lid on tight

 


I can’t change it now while this work is under submission, but after submitting I realised:
it can neither constrain its metre nor its rhyme
should probably be
it can constrain neither its metre nor its rhyme