by David Ohlerking II
Confessions of the Naked Touch
On the central line to mile end
london tries to set alight
rom the chewing gum wrapper
crammed into the overhead light
Rivulets of strangers
WE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO FLOODED YOU
Glut a carriage wrapped in glass
and studio audience laughs
breath peeled off in wet cloth
smothering the shrieking from a speaker
FOR A MOMENT WE ARE GODLESS
our bodies are cities
Then lurching through this labyrinth
with little objectivity big watches
heavy gold handicapping meat hands
the first to go under
Coughing into tissue confessionals
or newspapers clinched between fat
This city bears the weight of so much hate
when razorblades become doorways
to better days
the tube empties and refills
A neutered machine stroking your thigh
I LOVE YOU AND THIS LOVE IS REAL
Into blurs of purblind ghosts
convulsing to repeal their absence
between carriages in hollowed bone
i hear the hissing confessions
Of sexless lips and sinners
the nurse pulling a cigarette from her purse
Instead we drown, collectively
in sweat and flicking shoulders
to the memorised shuffling
of the bumps and jumps
For lack of a yellow pole
WE WILL DANCE TO THE MEMORY OF DESIRE
While bent eyes rearrange their waiting
to the underside of nails
or a phone’s bruised light
snail-trailing its portrait
Across hologram hands
I WANT YOUR TOUCH HERE AND HERE
Watching each-other
through slivers of peripherals
we undress into new-born pith
into naked flesh and love
by Coco
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