Poems on bedtime. Inspired by Artwork by Mona Hatoum

Inspired by Artwork by Mona Hatoum, in particular Quarters and Remains (play space)

 

Small secret sounds you hear when at the last and

all others seem to be quietly left away

from where the order of daylight once placed them.

Lust and levity left behind abandoned to the

latest of our lancelike thoughts dug

deep within a place you can’t unpick.

To scrape and scratch and ruin the

last things that you see before the

light closes and your eyes grow cold.

Heavy lies the crown that you cast aside

when forced to kneel before it amongst

the new grown grass of the latest summer sun.

Thought. Peace. Alarming moments spent

lurching from where you lie to where you

can’t without the next breath forced down your throat.

There’s little else to do but take your rest where it

comes and take your medicine when it comes and

make yourself the pretty porcelein doll one day

set to shatter.


All rise all rise and take a bow, take a moment, take a thought.

Let us present to you exhibit A!

We see here the inward sinking, silent scrunching and heartfelt wrenching,

We see here the thoughts and feeling of regurgitation.

We see here the insipid cowering, pathetic cringing and low-life flinching:

What an arse.

Let us present to you exhibit B!

We see here the heroic posing, unfettered saving and mindless daring,

We see here the thoughts and feelings of expectation.

We see here the wistful yearning, desperate searching and restless dreaming:

What an idiot.

Let us present to you exhibit C!

We see here the quiet worrying, remorseless fearing and ingrained panicking,

We see here the thoughts and feelings that really matter.

We see here the real imagining, outward projecting and actual pain:

What a waste.


The stagnant air of a late summer night, breeze ruffling curtains,

It’s easy to feel your mind stepping light, your thoughts uncertain.

There’s a moment when you tread, a void calling to you

Where the light has since fled, the dark making day new.

Warm thickness of heat wraps me up too tight, stifling adds new burdens,

There’s nothing to feel through the veil of sight, quiet thoughts more certain.