Poetry: Waiting

Alarm clock

The minute you walk out the door,

I check my phone. My heart is raw,

Your second kiss still on my skin.

The clock is ticking. Every single

minute gained I’ve more to lose:

Your eyes, your smile, the way you use

Your lips. But now the only face

I see is on the wall in place

Of you, with sharper, crueller hands

That tickle time and trickle sands.

No messages. You haven’t rung.

It’s been too long. My heart is hung

On tenterhooks, and I renew,

Refresh, reload, and wait for you.

Obsessing whether you will text

Will only leave me feeling vexed,

but I know I’ll be clinging on

Until I see that “Inbox (1)”.

© Joanna Rubery 2017

 

Poetry: Oh LEO!

Sister and brother

I have a little brother.

He’s very nearly two.

He’s always messing up my stuff –

Oh LEO! Was that you?

– but sometimes we play tickle.

Sometimes we have fun.

Sometimes he will trip me up –

Oh LEO! What’ve you done?

 

Leo breaks my make-up box.

Leo steals my shoe.

Leo eats my breakfast up.

Oh LEO! Look at you!

Leo knocks me over.

Leo pulls my hair.

Leo rips my pictures up.

Oh LEO! It’s not fair!

 

I wish I had a brother who was

More like me instead.

I’m very glad when Mummy says

Oh LEO! Time for bed!

But when it’s all gone quiet

then I know what I will do.

I’ll tiptoe to his room and say

Oh LEO! I love you.

© Joanna Rubery 2017

Poetry: Aphrodizzyacked

Bougainvillea

Onyx eyes, you hypnotize

My polyandrous heart.

I came in here ambivalent

But found my counterpart.

Though you’re a born philanderer

And I’m more orthodox,

We dialogue, philosophize,

And synch outside the box.

We’re sympathetic telepaths,

And metaphysically

You’re zinging pyrotechnics

Throughout my anatomy

With cryptic, enigmatic,

Hypercharismatic charm.

You render me ecstatic

When you pseudo-brush my arm.

So let’s be democratic

And put it to the vote:

Let’s abandon logic after

Your next anecdote,

And convert to kinetic all

That latent energy.

Kiss and decakiss my

Epidermal geography.

You can be my sine, my cosine,

My hypotenuse,

And I will be adjacent,

Perpendicular, your muse.

Let’s create a synthesis

Of perfect geometry,

Since loving is cathartic, but

love’s just hyperbole.

I don’t care about tomorrow!

Let’s hedonize tonight!

Kaleidoscopophilia,

Ephemeral delight.

Autograph my psyche

In your mythologic guise.

Tonight I’m Aphrodite,

You are Eros, telling lies.

© Joanna Rubery 2017