Scatter

Miroslav Sandev

She spits plosive darts at his dumb

bullseye mouth

His squashed-in pug face

faux-quizzical looks

even his trespassing strands of hair

make her lick her teeth

The clang and hiss of voices

Mouths gulping air between jousts

His cool green whataboutism

impregnates a fury that cannot be housed

How to wound without seeming to care?

Now he’s listing errata

a charge sheet

Eyes exit stage left

Her juggernaut tongue

is a raw shock

industrial torque

twists about the jugular

Could you make your eyes kind?

The drapes stop their useless flapping

Quiet, then subcutaneous regret

Above, silhouetted doubles

cast by a feathery light sway

out of time mingling borders

coupling and decoupling

Anvil silence

A cat looks in from the windowsill

looks away again

The sky a matte grey plate

crumbles like safety glass

MIROSLAV SANDEV is a poet working on unceded Wangal land. He migrated from Bulgaria to Australia in 1992. His poems have been published in a range of literary journals and anthologies. His collection, Echolalia, won the Noel Rowe Poetry Prize and is out with Vagabond Press.