BLISS

Percy Shelley
is waiting
on an
alien shore

for his robot wife
and robot baby

she returned to Earth
to do research
for her robot novel

when they
are all together once more
as it was always
meant to be

it will
be bliss.

NEVER DREAMT

no more
chaos from you
Mr Butterfly

on this
day of liberation
she has you
me
pinned, penned

your only flights
flights of metaphor
if you
had time to think,
space to move

battering your cage
your nose
pressed up
against the glass
she
has zoo-reptiled you

like those unfortunate creatures
plucked from tropical lands
you saw
enclosed, withheld,
contained in
a cubicle with a view

which, tragically, comically,
as a child you never dreamt…

MODIEGI MCCALL

how did my humanity
get so bleached?

when my wife
last put it through the wash
she used tropical
fabric-softener

those deft fingers digging in
yet not added much to
my melanin

JOINTLY FLAVOURED

LET ME NOT TO THE MARRIAGE OF TRUE MINDS ADMIT DECONSTRUCTION