Jim Tsinganos © 2022
by Iain Britton
Nausea
put away your phone’s infuriation your morning’s grimace your prosthetic lightbulb i prefer bald scarecrows caught half asleep or workers cutting grass clearing weeds tidying up the edges of forgotten tracks i slide my hand across the gashed surface of a hill & an ancient crustacean scrapes my skin upsets my part in this upheaval of logic in this solar deception of a primal recall today i prefer you as you are a playful blend of weaponry & melting ice cream a sybaritic citizen sunburnt with cracked lips a floating transient dreamer you feel the dismissiveness of an angel’s bite the breath rattle of love’s nausea often i think of a place in time & how it continues often i celebrate by swinging high amongst city lights i question the longings in us you question the gauntlet of seasons why follow the convoluted garden path why follow the vanishing haze of a floral savage
Iain Britton, New Zealand, is the author of several poetry collections. His poems have been published in such magazines as Harvard Review, Poetry, The New York Times (US), Stand, Agenda, New Statesman, and Prototype. The Intaglio Poems was published by Hesterglock Press 2017 (UK). A new chapbook—Project Constellation—has just been launched by the London publisher Sampson Low.