A collection of poems by Jan De Raeymaeker

-- LOCKED LIPS -- And if lips become locked Should we scramble In search of a key Or should we not, let them be And witness the long silent linger

A collection of poems by Jan De Raeymaeker

-- HOEBOY -- In the thrall of tiredness This hoeboy glowers out his ought ait A blunted oik forking the topsoil Jabbing tines scratching the crumb for plink Sight penned to vacant gyres, slung Between swells and sumps Every fibre lying for the other; belying the need To be free from kinesthesia

Poems by Jan De Raeymaeker

-- EMERALD AND BERYL -- Then life comes back On the limbs of the lost and gone Criss-crossed thousands Finding slow decay On the bones of Beech The tomb-teeth of Pine Feeding from the fallen And bowered stumps Reaching skyward, bit by bit Its innocent stems Topped in emerald and beryl Alive and vibrant, and so delicate

Poems by Jan De Raeymaeker

--- COME THE DAWN --- As night's crisp breath settles The aroma of rot whispers Of beaded milk-flesh sunken That awful stillness at the end A stiff trapped stare fixed Cavities bloating to maggot feed Death lingering by fingertips Slipping as dawn’s life takes up Leaving a mottled corpse behind Letting sleeping dogs lie

Poems by Jan De Raeymaeker

--- SOUND ME --- Sound me. Am I not round in your mouth? Do I split your lips? Make you spit? Do I make you bite your tongue? Push the syllables out wrongly? Do I make you gnash? Tangle you in a toothed trap? Sound me. I am round in your mouth. I make yours’ open with a pout. Make you lovingly form me And long to breathe me out.

Poems by Jan De Raeymaeker

--- MALIN HEAD --- So old these grey bones; so old, and so alone Shrugging loose their soiled coat To dip the salt caress, its wet brush Flayed by the icy crush Hungry wails and relentless howls Circling, lamenting the ravenous chill Their cries stolen from the waves and passed west Out over the empty depths