Julie Lumsden

Skegness and Global Warming

The Fun Fair and the concrete fort,
Lisa loves Liam, fading with him
inside a thin green heart, next to a swastika
and shit and Sarah is a slag. All waiting
for the triumphant sea.

Merman

Your letter, the familiar firm hand
smudging in the humid bathroom:
Remember when I stood up in the bath
and you called me your merman?

I remember all day and all night
and at sunrise, my blue bedroom curtains
turn the room aqueous.

Watching Dirk

Watching Dirk, bad and beautiful
in the Blue Lamp -

beauty is never comfortable; and in a man of course
entirely gratuitous. What can you do with it? Gaze at it,
guard it, fuck it, watch it, outstare it; wait for it
to fade or thicken into something easier to bear.

The Impossibility of Loving The New Neighbours

Hacking through a wild paradise to replace the bramble
with concrete, poisoning the silver birch,

You haven't got cats have you?
Clocking my dressing gown at midday
over the low fence which makes bad neighbours.