Home & Away

A theme of 'Home & Away' was picked for the Bolton Octagon reading of a few weeks passed. As the date loomed, I sat and scribbled a few lines here and there, finally finishing it on the day of performance. Here is the poem I read:

Home & Away

Home is the dimple I kiss on your cheek
The smile that greets day after day, week after week
Home is the nook and cranny of our familiar love
The soft space between your thighs
Toes touching toes
The smell at your nape
The tangle of your hair in my hands

Home is known
That recognisable shape groped in the dark
The quarterly strike of our Grandmother clock
Home is the citric scent of your piss
Sometimes, I want to give home a miss

To get away from it all
Away away away away
Away is the girl with the soft copper hair
Twirling through the night in her charity shop dress
Away is the bulge of her breast as she moves
The temptation of those unknown bumps and grooves

To explore the landscape of her body
Sends me away, away from home
To a land of false expectation
Where I dance to that French jazz
In the Bande A Part Café
With those two cool and friendly
Cats by my side

As the copper-haired girl
Starts to stare with those evil
Green eyes, her gypsy cotton ears
Twitch in anticipation

But the excitement of away soon fades
And the pull of home plays
A soft inviting tune in my head
And I return
Back to our comfortable habit
Back to our comfortable bed