SPRING A SECOND EARLY

---

A poetry mini-collection composed of seasonal reflections and varied explorations of relatedness and transition.

Josie Valentine

beware her stare

oh, Josie Valentine

an orphan’s grip holds true

with hazel orbits

as revolutionary

as the early molten hue

fear a kinship

so unwelcome

so surreptitious too

she cries not

for her mother

but sees her out of view

in the metal

the deflect

the sterilising blue

there lies

the aftermath

of a bloody human coup

the saviour

the animal

the dwindling few

Spring

Highway

Barrenness

Like burning

Capillaries

Too straight

To cauldron

Life

Trees bend

Perhaps

In revered

Awe

Perhaps

In mockery

Stacatto moves

To block

Our path

Saving

Every ray

Of light

Bouncing off

A jet black

Oblivion

For redemption

In a near

Time

See

Cosmic light on

Tangled limbs

Gasping

For the

North Star

Matted and

Hazed in

Thorny capture

Forced to breathe

Together

See how

Porous curves

And crinkled shapes

Bury your

Smooth skin

Your paved world

Little worlds

Cover letter

Enlightenment

Heraklion

I had thoughts of death

Which kept me up all night

(I didn’t sleep last night)

So I went to a museum

The museum was stuffy

I felt dense

A box of bones saddled

In balance with mine

I saw beads and metal

I could not believe the length of them

The time swallowed

I thought of swapping them with my own

Melting them into my skin

I wondered how the walls would change

If I dropped right now to the floor

The statues, the vases, the knives

Tested me out for size

They asked what I was made of

Where we will end?

What nice weather

Lincoln's Park

how quick they were

to prey on weakness

it hurts to say

how my mind does it too

you responded with

molten iron

in puny bones

firing

one last time

protection sought

against those

you have always known

and slept beside

a primal competition

turned sour

turned inside

out

defiance

not survival

against tinkered rules

which raised you here

but must pull you back