The Sea

This bay adorned with seaweed 
covered rocks, the slight
foam that we avoided,
due to its displacement 
among what beauty 
we could drain from this 
impeccable dullness. 

The sand now scattered  
with half filled bottles,
the remnants of a planned
weekend piss-up gone
horribly wrong, due to a lack
of hindsight on just
how deplorable this destination
is, despite our longing for nostalgia. 

The crack of gulls upon 
polystyrene clog up the salt air
inhaled, leaving white dunes
in our lungs, absorbed through
arteries, and bled out across
a beach now devoid of promised
pleasure.

The cliffs now split silently
in two, alcoves that barely   
accommodate our disappointment
and slowly close in around us,
as we gradually arise once more
and begin to repair 
what is left of our dignity.  


The Last Days

The owner of this trough
has simply past caring, likewise
it occupants, who feed on its
contents; their sunken principles
stoop to a new low, like a torn kite
through a vortex, never quite hitting the
ground. 

Their breath held tight, 
any forward vision now blind 
with pride, corpulent 
with the grains they have sowed
with minimal toil, and distributed
only amongst themselves.

The tower they deemed 
could never be toppled
now corrodes brick by brick, 
untruth by untruth, 
and slowly falls into this breeze
as toxic dust, which luckily
we finally have the chance to purify. 


Perfect Practice

Chattered words in private,
those footsteps practiced 
in circles that never decrease,
time I considered wrapped 
and protected in this refuge 
which offers no respite, 
like a barb-wire bird's nest,
cradling nothing but discomfort. 

And when the hour strikes,
those shredded nerves now 
engulf each limb and muscle,
a sense of vertigo as that 
time approaches, teeth grating
against pavement curbs, 
the end result is no protection
for a broken throat; 
the rehearsal always 
ends up the finished product.   



Jonathan Butcher has had poems appear in various print and online publications including, The Morning Star, Mad Swirl, Drunk Monkeys, The Abyss, Cajun Mutt Press and others. His fourth chapbook, 'Turpentine' was published by Alien Buddha Press. He is also the editor of online poetry journal Fixator Press.