I
Only take if certain of symptoms
and not reliant on side effects to get you hard.
For now, she can only come
by imagining herself a hunched devil
coming inside her as she pretends to cry.
He’s Doubting Thomas without the friends,
begs her to stick it in and puncture the imperfect pack.
We don’t know why you thought it at all acceptable
to treat someone’s mouth in that way.
Such a clue. You may choose to pretend to be better,
where advantage comes in doctrine, anecdote, delivery.
Pictures falter when scrutinised
by some tired Beelzebub of bar flies.
All an act, like everything for ever amen.
II
These can collapse your kidneys if you forget to drink.
They warned you. Said he wouldn’t bleed for realsies.
Checklist lies of recognition or temperature
tolerance plus-or-minus thirty-six degrees.
After taking it is important to wait before any belly-flops dreams.
Those bits fizz and itch, so heaves his need to the bedroom
to blister a skin that smells of bad thinking.
Like some Hercules flicking through catalogues
to choose the perfect mop, this is time well spent.
III
And over the water she is still burning
houses protected by firewalls and bear pits.
Will still bring her best self to the meeting,
so hangs all night in the airing cupboard
with lists of cars, periscoped books, lighter-fluid fumes.
And for no good reason
encoded the names of those she torched
in the pattern of sirens and screams.
Annabel Banks 2016
Illustration Nick Victor