blessings
may your harvest fit in a sack may none of your apples be sweet may barbed wire tear off the snouts of your pigs may the mirror show the scarecrow’s face the moon shine on your wedding-day may the milliner embroider your bonnet with nettles the blackberry fell your dog may your every joy grow a carbuncle may your eyes go to milk may the moth make its nest in your bedclothes the wind blow sickness in your ears may your husband leave you for a crone may his mother season your cooking from the grave may corncrakes gnaw your sour bones a shadow fall across your shadow the mice lay their eggs in the mouths of your children your children have the blacksmith’s eyes may tracks lead hunters to your door your fingers melt like candles may you succumb to god’s terrible kittens may the wolf carry off the heart of your heart and the swans swim thrice by your grief |
Anthem
We were all in love but didn’t know it. We were all in love continually. Bless our little hearts, smoking and drinking and wrecking things. Bless our shameless shame. We were loud, invincible. We were tough as rails. We stole street signs and knocked over bins. Ripped the boards off boarded-up stuff. Slept in towers filled with pigeon shit and fluff. We kicked beer bottles down cobbled lanes. Tires and chains. Chains and wheels and skin. The world was always ending and we the inventors of everything. |
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