Tim Allen
4 poems from Mattered by Tangents
67
in that direction autumn
although distance desires outlandish spaces
in that direction spring
extended family’s hair lash and nail extensions reach the street
deluge head-over-heeled towards the busker
his experimental movie a downbeat experience
in that direction winter with knobs on
road surface peeled back like a can of explorer’s Spam
film director directs the summer sidelong
traditional symbols undulate in flight simulator
i took Bachelard’s Poetic Space to the Air Show
public execution now replaced by public birth
68
the debt of birds to gravity
empty clock face in constant astonishment
boomeranging heart transplanting instant debt
cranky I Ching
revolt embellished baroque maelstrom rim
cynical continuum
what we thought of as a problem turned out to be Anselm’s elbow
and you could get a grant for your insurrection
daybook clasp mistakes laparoscopy for clinical cliché
fashion show birdbath
(that is there’s a birdbath in the background at a fashion shoot)
the thermodynamic death of an old tyrant
69
shrill trinket is in the wrong sort of danger
boss bastes her secretary’s goose
unbearably rare but not unbelievable
self-contained bathos fears an undead spouse
typing pool cough-up for supermarket homebrew
a river of Ribena about to drip off the desk
objects get concussion too
philosophical debris
waterfall rings the doorbell (in its dress)
well placed fake replaces modernist displacement
eyelash tinder replication of sparked douse
but it’s Roubaud who answers the door (in his pyjamas)
70
reciprocity licked a collection plate
analysand licked the paper off the collection box
received wisdom desperate for alternative mission
dining with blood donor the day after tomorrow
elusive busker
who are you buster?
when nobody’s listening you can sing what you like
you can sing what you like anyway
auburn tamper damp probe tatter retch
psychoanalyst’s tongue singes the corners in the box
an uninhabitable bagatelle
one writer has no gender while another has too many
Tim Allen lives in Lancashire and helps run the Peter Barlow's Cigarette reading series in Manchester. Most recent book is Under The Cliff Like (if p then q).