Bus note 69

        City Road.
        Dudley Road.
White can't quite trust
African's directions.
        She steps off
        to look about
        for paler guide.
Icknield Port Road.
        Outside one house
        hang heavy
        headed roses.
From nextdoor's window
Jesus stares out
not smiling.

Portrait 7

                  You could peel
             the clementine
                        but you ask me to

    service     to and fro

                   saying hello (that is
            touching thumbs
                     or looking longer)

    shown palm with
            mehndi fades

     Little you thumps big him
      where the spine
           is winding down

               growing old
           
                 but this picture you

        You shut the door
                     and have to tell

   Painting with the worn brush
                                   delicately

    You make:
                beautiful, this
             hardly there
                 

Bus note 68

        Two in silence
        mouthing prayers:
flaking bindi at bridge,
round face in repose;
        delicate taqiyah rests
        above young beard.
Ladywood wastes again,
        looking a strain
        on first thing eyes
till we're past
        and the beads
        run on through
        the different fingers.

On Windmill Lane

Bus note 67

Long and slow line
of cars turning in
to Hallfield school
        carrying rich
        and legitimate children;
dear lumps
of expectation
        capped and hatted,
        red and green.
The bus waits and waits.
        Tap out riled and
        displaced patterns
on jutting, resistant knees.

From Outside

wall lips
mouth black
green damp

creeping

water mapped

on white not white

impure baby waves

where eventless

matte skin stills

picked at

tendered threads
all slow

the bacillus ink
slinks out

Bus note 66

Pissed up
and his bare arms
all limned webs and flags
he falls into Iceland
        as lean kids
        in Henley shirts
        carrying cue cases
take up pavement
with fuck you laughter.
        The storm
        forecasted
        comes closer
with each tiptoe breath
using up the comic force
of the grand false lashes
on the now shivering girl.

Portrait 6

   tonic see saw

how sweet the sound

             shook and stuttered vowels

        singing into there       opening ear
             faces very close

singing aye aye yippee

       an interval's ache
                       plus pulled up time

      fingers touched hardly
   for friend markers

     look clicked for less than
                          then lights out

            hymnal creaks    4am

  This new sign looks like tears

     "I never seen him
             leap about
                     like that before"

          chemical flowers
       DANCING

             music is just
         about everything
                  in half lit hall

Bus note 65

        School kid music
        needles.
Heat aches
and the skin all raised.
        Red sweat
        taut face.
Girl holds her head
heavy in her tiny hands.