K-T

Lately I have been ignoring linebreaks. I don't have any particular defence or reason for that but I've never really been sure where the line between poetry and prose actually is, and sticking everything in one paragraph is easier anyway.
This is mostly a mashup of a few ideas that'd been floating around for a while and decided to get born messily (I spilled some coffee on the page) on a train to Wales.

You could be tracing lines in the dust caked on the inside of a years-old deep city window, eye following your finger then out through smudged glimpses into a cheap sun and your skin breathing “wind” you shrug loose your nettling terror step wide and out and never glancing back know the image of yourself filtered through smudged dust like blinking; still walking come to the bridge, stare into the river engorged with snowmelt and in that moment of wind and skin you see the world by homeopathy, the eternal memory of water murmuring and how the water in the river beneath you cascading unlocked from frozen was once in your blood sealed to bursting with life, was once still on a Mexican hilltop reflecting the meteor burning like a trapped ant and hurtling, and the memory of water murmured to you so you knew the meteor was in your blood, the fire of it plated iridium and hurtling and you could be looking out at the ghost of extinction, kisses from space, all of it through dusted glimpses squinting, you could be staring in interruptions through the tired glass, you could be still sweating fire, you could be watching your gravity shake loose the earth, you could be smoke.

All the basalt

This was when you’d just got home from work. You were understandably tired and a little stressed and were looking to unwind but unfortunately it was raining in every room and obviously that didn’t help matters. So you took out some plastic sheets to cover your sofa and your bed and your waterlogged electronics which took some time and afterwards you weren’t in the mood to deal with any of this. That’s when he stepped into your living room. The carpet, which was drenched, tore a little under his feet. You looked up and sighed.
“What do you want?”
“I was just wondering if you wanted to visit Paris.”
“I need to find someone to dry my house.”
“That, I’m sure, will take care of itself.”
And you shrugged because why not? So he led the way to your front door and you looked back at your soaking wet house then stepped out through. The ground beneath you was dry and dark and cold and under your feet pebbles stirred which didn’t happen often here. You looked around then stared at him.
“This isn’t Paris.”
He gestured to the blank basalt landscape then up to see the earth in the sky and nodded. “This isn’t Paris.”
You sighed as frustration started to surface. “You never said anything about taking me to the sea of tranquillity.”
He nodded. “It’s true, this isn’t what you expected. Then again,” he said as he started to walk up a slight mound, “if I’d followed convention wouldn’t it have taken you days to get to Paris? And the likelihood of you ever coming here would, I think, have been significantly diminished. Look, can you see the Atlantic?”
You shook your head, turned away and held your shoulders. “But this isn’t what I asked for.” You started to walk towards a little depression in the surface. “There’s not much chance of a brief but emotionally significant romance with a sensitive and strong young French man here, is there?”
He considered for a moment then shook his head. “It’s possible but unlikely, I’ll admit.” He shrugged. “Still, if I only ever took you where you wanted to go, how would you find anything new?” He clambered further up the mound. “Oh, the icebergs are twitching. Do you see?”
You threw up a dismissive hand and started the long trek down the depression. “I’m really not willing to commit to this,” you said.
He sighed. “Alright but I think you’d like it here. If you gave it a chance.” He reached the top of the mound and shielded his eyes with one hand. “I think that’s Africa. And the desert! The burning desert, look!”
But you’d already walked back into your house which, it’s true, had started to dry. It relieved you and you sat on your sofa and rolled a joint. I took a toke then passed it to you and looked you right in the eye, I said I think you made a mistake. You blew a smoke ring straight up and shrugged, I looked away from your eye which soon enough would be red.

o the forest the forest

i sort of like this one

his feet creaked on the platform he sighed and said o the forest the forest i said what dyou mean he said look at it just look its a forever spectrum mine i said yeah it looks nice but what if you get eaten or catch something its too far too empty to get help he said no he said all the help you need is there and he said its not empty not ever empty he said there are people yeah not many ill grant you but that doesnt matter every poison you find there somewhere near theres a cure every jaguar every harpy somewhere near theres a rock or a sharp stick he said more than that it will heal you in spirit in mind and in spirit he said think of a vine longest youve ever seen strung with turquoise with feathers with wind chimes think of running your finger down it for days the music youd make thats the forest thats what it does plus as homo sapiens he said its been given to us to have a transformative intellect we have that capacity to look at the world then change it the world new where a snake sees trees we see an infinite procession of possibilities going backwards forever you couldnt count them all like i said a forever spectrum mine and i said well yeah but could you live there and he sort of turned away and i guessed he wanted me to leave and i walked back off the platform onto the boat then when i got back to my hotel i called up my ex i said i just wanted to say hi she said im really glad you made it out there i said yeah i said thanks then we talked and i hung up and i went to the bar and drank mescal which i dont know where he got it and i watched the band they werent great they played standards i was drunk it was hard getting upstairs to bed