When it came

It demanded a contract

I signed your name

Terms of trust not exact

But it would be back

When the rain started

And the red fell

Don’t open a book

You will only skim

Before placing it on a shelf

With other broken scripts

When another genre

Is softer to the eye

Or more interesting

Or scares you less

I know the shadows that are behind you

Sit heavily under your eyes

I know you’re full of the past

Even though you’re starving

I know it sounds like voices

But know they’re whispers

I know you’re scared

But please know I will follow

The shadows until the sun comes up

And you start feeling the sun on your skin

Instead of heat in your head

And you’ll know

Your worth again

You ask for numbers

From the alphabet

That I can’t compute

In symbols

Your coding technique

Is too structured

For my flitting neurones

I can’t fit inside your six boxes

Unless we turn my bones

Into numerals

XLV1

Invoked physics of

The science of sickness

Causes faith in basic deceptions

Until my stomach crawls northwards.

It’s not enough to feed desire.

There’s a law of diminishing return;

I try to switch it off,

But my brain knows —

‘Product recall’