Les Wicks
Lightly go to each abyss
I am your country
just by being here
the weaponry of smiles
that handshake bear trap.
“Our people” are more complicated nowadays
with children as strangers &
BFFs in Iceland…
but somehow still the same.
Beauty is embedded in my spine.
I have learnt to embrace the shards
that make up each human transaction.
There is war, always contemporary & refreshing.
As we march towards certain defeat
we leave behind the neuroses & debts –
the daub that plasters
what we thought was shelter.
It’s instinctual, shaking out the shit,
no more choice than
the mutton bird migration
or a cuckoo’s thieving.
David debates whether we are pack or herd.
To engage you must obfuscate.
To be true is ridiculous, all those rules
were written down
the book was banned
but I remember the word restoration.
Les Wicks has toured widely and seen publication in over 350 different magazines, anthologies & newspapers across 28 countries in 13 languages. His 13th book of poetry is Getting By Not Fitting In (Island, 2016). leswicks.tripod.com/lw.htm
