from Anonymous Intruder


1

Don't be surprised if you find yourself bleeding on the road
no thought of reaching the city any more

I am no longer useful to you, not even to myself
standing on the spot where you once begged

It's as if I can still catch the scent of your sweat,
coloured glass smashed at my feet

If I take one piece, I'll see a fragment of your face
I've let go of your hand because I wish to be alone

Further down the hill, we're no longer in the sun
At no moment are we safe from ourselves

It's only a question of crossing the street
You will not be refused

yet when the gift is offered with open hands
it's no longer this you desire


2

Someone peeps into the dark room
the coat hanger still sways in the wardrobe

When I meet her to discuss plans for the conference
I remember how I pictured her the night before

skinny arse up in the air
heavy breasts swinging with each thrust

This fragment is a way to the infinite that I claim as mine
together with all those who crowd in here

The street is not the same as the one you walked yesterday
nor the corner I watched you turning

When you speak another voice is lost
the author of the gesture gone

Your heart charts its own way unseen
Unclothed you kiss the stranger as anyone might


3

At the roadside the body covered by a sheet,
just a few strands of hair in the breeze

brightness in the waving field
Can something so beautiful really burn

The riches you once knew with your finger tips
your own flesh and blood

We're obsessed by the story we will never tell
In your memory the buildings of the city

are much whiter than they really are
limbs of trees stretch over frozen water

You touch me in your dream
I can't read the fading name

on the still-sealed envelope
If only you would turn your face towards me


4

Sitting by the road
he too was once a child

I came to another piece of his life
cool shadow the only place

You responded too quickly
in your need for approval

The loneliness of others
the train at the country station

after nightfall distant voices singing
no one for miles around

Resonance grows from consent to emptiness
retreat an act of association

dust rising and falling.


5

It's okay I want it
placing my hand between her thighs

the business of walking
never to stop

hands trailing the darkness
the house abandoned no longer real 

How you would love to have your feet on the ground again
It will not disappear so easily

however much you turn away
If it is theirs it is also yours 

to love with intelligence not power
Reluctant to unpack when she reached the hotel room

to commit herself to the idea of staying.

© Ian Seed 2006