All My Friends Are Getting Sick
Resisting arrest within six-sided
isolation channels neatly stacked.
All flesh is woodworked; index finger
to thumb pinched in gluey press
Blister pack resentment, as gospel song,
as holy hands conjure heavy touch.
Our future a knuckling of ice soaked
deep blue. Young resignation animal.
Under bloody bones, a snuffing out of
moons terse light. Thirteen orbits or
thirteen chances for redemption sniffed
as clots into cavity. Volcanic black blood.
Wilful ignorance is a vile split tongue.
The analogue voice of a talking clock.
Stuart McPherson is a prize-winning poet from the UK. Recent poems have appeared in Butcher’s Dog Magazine, Bath Magg, Poetry Wales, and Anthropocene. A debut full length collection Obligate Carnivore was published by Broken Sleep Books in August 2022. In October 2022, Stuart was the winner of the Ambit Annual Poetry Competition.
Twitter: @theeabsentee