Two Poems by Matt Merritt

Uchronie


World broken by countless horizons. No light or sound
flows over them. Swifts scythe rents in the present

momentarily, air crackles and closes in their wake. Wait
while wind harps on wires. Symphony of electricity

and shadow plays behind suburban curtains.
Mirror-fronted new-builds placed face-to-face

make infinity, the hollow earth wracked by rumour
of alternate existences. Walls between lives thin

to near nothing. Suspect the survival of stations
never stopped at, dayglo line-workers in on the secret,

while trying to map points of divergence, signposts
to each new reality. Back up on the street,

late arrivals resonate the heart’s cage. Still
they keep coming, wiping the dreams from their eyes.



Variations On A Theme By JA Baker

I.

walk from east to west
by hidden ways

sun at your back
looking for the places
they might be

pause at the corner
of time and space
and expect
no/any thing


II.

two possibles mid-morning
then fuck all
all day


III.

fire-eyed owls
cling to contours
afraid to let go of the earth

but test yourself
against the wind

first select
            the correct
density of air

perfect angle
of attack and hang

then notice how every
incline smoothes away

and all foreshortening
is undone


IV.

so many times
he has described this indistinct
perimeter

knowing all the gaps

the rough margins
and secret places

the points at which
it is as well to go on
            as turn back

he has mapped the shape
and compass of lives
traced
the heavy progress of days

beaten the bounds
of possibility
wearing his divinity
lightly


V.

prey to your imaginings
in the owl-song hours

a long low murmur
            slow beneath the skin
thrills the thicket of sleep
sends you out

beyond sound and sight
bare tops of trees
knotted with life
                          untied
by first fingers of light

a tether pulled tight
                                tight
then sprung

as some wild hope
puts up another
heart in hiding
and clear-eyed
races it home


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Matt Merritt's collection Troy Town was published by Arrowhead Press in 2008. He also has a personal blog, entitled Polyolbion, which you can read here.