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Likestarlings is a place for talking in poems. We pair poets with poets and they write a sequence of six new works by responding in turn to one another. Our palaver blog goes beyond poetry to discuss collaboration in theory and in practice. Please take a look, and feel free to add comments, opinions and suggestions here. Read poems here
 

Believe him the gardener


Teeth stripped stems percussive: tooth comb, fish bone,
fingered little globes of surfacing blood,

less than arterial, the pricks of gorse,
bright brilliance we could burst, skin’s checked force.

Lost in the bush, I was calm - now I wake
charged with a crazy person’s worry shake,

while, undiverted, you work hand and fist,
milking tight stems into pots, grip and twist,

whitely biting fruit to make juice. Firefly!
now maddens with flung orbs the magnet sky,

tiny red planets sucked up, hung in luck.
Count the clustered stars, blood points of our trust.

Red juice pools soft in the well of your lip,
sweat beads your bare feet like clear berries strung.

Wading Roti’s hot skies, ocean soaked locks,
drookit, mealie meal, arms spears, board a shield,

heart bursts. Rapt children run so fast from you,
their feet leave redcurrants on the rocks.