Spen

I’ll think of you

in spray paint stencilled dreams

The star speckled sky

A chattering of skulls

A purple stippled butterfly

The cosmos, a blinking eye.

Your art will live on

Your heart will, too.

Do you know how much

you were loved?

So many friends.

The messages came through

in white and blue

‘Sensitive, kind, caring’

Your humour, passion,

Your intelligence and talent.

But let’s be real:

We knew your bad side, too

But was that really even you

or just something that possessed you?

One day:

I thought we’d sit and talk

Figure it out

Put those teenage years to bed

Pencil in the gaps

Pour colour in the cracks.

The last thing I said to you:

‘Next summer, things will be different’

And they will.

You died trying

Died making a change

Sketching a new life

Looking to a future that never came.

I’ll think of you 

when I hear those tunes

that connect us

Deeper than anyone knew

On silver stars

in spray paint stencilled dreams

I’ll remember you.

___________

Now

I remember you
against the pink of my bed
your eyes followed me
like the opposite 
of a sniper

no one had ever looked 
at me like that before

you were as pure as paper
but I was cynical
even then, with you eating me up 
with your eyes
I knew:

that the chemical of
lust and love
can change and become
a questioning of

‘why did you put you hand on his leg?’
or
‘your friend is coming between us.’



________________________

A written rap battle

You took my skeleton hand

down streets

where red and pink lights

had twinkled days before

Now naked buildings

shivered in the cold

but my hand was warm in

your gloved embrace.

Back in your room

you told me a story

of colours like ice,

nazi dictators

and a place where everyone could

read each other’s thoughts.

Then you looked at me,

and I knew.

You promised me tiles to build

a safe place to hide.

You showed me another way,

A way to be free like you.

Later,

In my dreams

we were covered in snow

Tiles painted with ravens

cracked like mirrors.

But when I woke

you were laughing

Everything around you

was pink

and orange

and I was yours.

______________________