SAPLING
Doffs a glove
for serous work, open
bursts a gape-
leased broadside note,
late aspic technique to
etch stuck etic
on walls set in grain,
granules, etc. this brocade
rigorous down you
object to speak
covets mute liner that
gels climbing garrison
now thigh flow-
ering run, a cove
unsutured, seams in air
also this breadth of line
rivers you, discovers
cast-off part-
clamour to emboss and
outlier continue in transfer
unmailing
APPEAL
run-through the affected space
with tissue that baulks
disavows knitting
the act of graining seams or
texture against surface
pinhole beams scorched flat
remove headgear unscolding
works to foster the wound bed
by larval therapy or tight deepening
forceps to excise blunting sediment
red ridges catch together
your eye quickens
mine is open
promise of speech settling rose
Tom Betteridge
Tom Betteridge lives in London. His pamphlet, Pedicure (2017), is available from sine wave peak and he has a new pamphlet, Body Work, forthcoming from Sad Press (2018). His poems and essays have appeared in journals and magazines including Textual Practice, Blackbox Manifold, Datableed, Hix Eros, Intercapillary Space, Jungftak, The Literateur and Zarf, and in From London Out: An Anthology of Contemporary English Poetry (2017), edited by Luke Roberts.