Teach
rotting five-bar gates to walk; to pull
their broken plank-bones from long grass-strands. Thump
the compacted
ground of paths with blistered balls of bare feet. Cut
wrinkled fertiliser bags, found
in crisp ditch-bottoms, into strips to dress
the desiccated carcass of a badger as
an angel of the dry daze. Claw
flints with bleeding fingernails to prove
blood’s runnier than water. Sprint
across stubby grass harbouring lost
smashed glass. Hurl
sycamore saplings into the branches of a beech; watch
a mother’s sap-filled limbs catch
dead babies. Cough
on the beige mist slipping off
terrified bared roots. Screech
the feel of barbed wire on an inner thigh. Stroke
a faded-to-pink Coke can to show
a gesture of reverence. Caress
a primrose’s petal-edge – then pick-it-and-bin-it. Yell
expletives at little nipples of hawthorn buds; arouse
the stiffness of thorns. Crawl
on the cracked ground of this dry April. Graze
– in grief – your eyeball with a bleached
crisp packet’s sharp corner. Dial
a lewd 0891 number; speak,
sad as bird-song in a biscuit tin, into
a black plastic dog-bone. Lick
scabs of fast drying cow pats. Jeer
at a hovering kestrel, tell
it to go
fuck itself. Gob.
See
how your spittle rolls
into balls of moist dust. Gawp.
[Mad Vandal’s Dry April Ramble was first published by Tears in the Fence]
Mark Goodwin
Mark Goodwin is a poet-sound-artist who speaks & writes in various ways. He is also a balancer, walker, climber, and stroller.
Mark has been making poetry (and fiction) for over three decades. He has published six full-length books & seven chapbooks with Knives Forks & Spoons Press, Leafe Press’s Open House Editions, Longbarrow Press, Nine Arches Press, The Red Ceilings Press, Shearsman Books, & Small Minded Books. Both Mark’s books with Longbarrow Press – Steps (2014) & Rock as Gloss (2019) – were category finalists in the Banff Mountain Book Competition. Mark’s next book, due out with Shearsman in 2021, is called At.
OSMOSIS PRESS 