A Poem by Patrick Williamson

Love desert me

A sliding dance mix pushed us to a darkness of obsession-al love
in the recesses of mind distortion –
unpeopled it preyed on us
& we preyed on ex-lovers, attempts to get off with
a girl that we messed up - the her that
rollercoasted me from peak to trough,
each lift, glimpse, word and dropped clue,
so much wasted watching.

So much reworking and pouring over
bad poetry metaphors so personal not even
the intended falling rain could decipher,
I wonder if I could now. Spy on her, arranging that
improbable second of smile

Stilted mode & spirit level.
making up for lost time
in a world almost beyond recognition,
where the song remains the same.

You should have known better.
I didn't know anything else.
I thought that was life, thought
each moment counts, think now

know each moment counts
each moment is vital.



Patrick Williamson is an English poet and translator currently living near Paris. He has translated Tunisian poet Tahar Bekri and Quebecois poet Gilles Cyr. In 1995 and 2003, he was invited to the Festival International de Poésie at Trois-Rivières in Québec. He is the editor of Quarante et un poètes de Grande-Bretagne (Ecrits des Forges/Le Temps de Cerises, 2003) and editor and translator of The Parley Tree, Poets from French-speaking Africa and the Arab World (Arc Publications, 2012). Latest poetry collections: Locked in, or out?, Red Ceilings Press, and Bacon, Bits, & Buriton, Corrupt Press, both in 2011.