Richard Barrett

Couples

PART 1

The measurements of space confuse

Similes of love

Divided by days of the month times –

O!

When does that bloody chemist open?!

Eat lunch here

Out of synch

cross the determined dual-carriageway

interventions may be needed (possibly)

when posting lists on online poetry forums

Remove your spectacles

Do what John Milton would have done

Without background or foreground

Just Summer colds

a cloakroom token

so let any bad news wait

let me lean into you

Life-sized

Easy now

all the days of the month

It was surprising what he found enthralling

And

No one wants to talk anymore

meaning a very necessary red pen

Like models of cows

The cows don’t look like real cows

but like

A thing that is nothing or possibly something

Targeting the wrong kind of customer

O, traffic light!

I should wait for sleep!

Command motorists to stop

In Birmingham

To gee each other on in the pub we

kept warm

Becoming

Held down

In the pub

You work from home?

The alarm set for six nothing

-ness

in an expensive restaurant

It became something other than what it was

Because

It was surprising And

out of synch

That’s true for all avant-conservatives

+ peaches are missed

I want to live in Birmingham please

Eat beforehand

As in this PART(y) 2

there will be no food

Or any other info that might be relevant

Stretched so wide

Until

the beginning of next month

Curling apostrophes here

like dog turds

Called for

The measurements of the jaw

It doesn’t have time

Light aircraft take-off

when

voice becomes ‘voice’

There’s paperwork requiring attention

Spell-checking

The editorial

Is there any? Or

Isn’t it?

too fast to turn

Give due attention to the paperwork

Rise early

If there is any that might be relevant

Refuel +

Then

Take off

similes of love

On online forums

The keys held down

From home

cut across

The busy carriage-way

Take off your spectacles!

like

Working from home

There is a globe on the desk

There will be no food at the party

Those white balls of resolve

and At all costs

keep his thesaurus

just as long as necessary

,,,,,,,,,,Dave

a jaw stretched that wide must not be surprised at

I will write your Status Updates for you

It will last for 5

years

sihT

lautum

noitingocer

Ask him how he is and

He’ll take ten minutes to think of a reply

Confused by midnight

&c

&

space

the measurement of

How the month divided by days

Equals

the end of the world (?) No

not PART 3

quite

yet

Thy shape time it

Shifts dizzyingly

A plastic model of Homer Simpson as reward

PART 3

Now!

All leaves plucked + nude

+ The pavement striped like

a prison-yard hard-man

The sun

striping the pavement like

through railings

a cattle-grid or

a prison-yard hard-man

Friends are so pleased

We share our love in Fb comment boxes

indexing Social Change

unmistakably

I will walk home

In just minutes

Spell-check ‘promiscuous’

Spectres haunt the present while

Former versions of ourselves won’t disappear

Forgotte n

Backwards in time

to

Heavy shipping

You’ll be challenged if you photograph the car at night

Neighbour

A short part, that I love you:

PART 4!

Down Eccles New Road, sport

-ing failure

Still decorated with flags

The

favoured employee

The first page of the Food Diary

Banana

X2 (incomplete) +

Indifference in

American Apparel

The traffic-light’s on red

I would have had an affair

I –

Just never knew how to raise the subject

Career policemen

Cops fail to find dead OAP in own armchair

I heard

A VHS-age dichotomy instead

Local vampires sucking blood

No background

No foreground either

Do you love me? I want to live with you

in Birmingham

paint + brushes from Wilkinsons

taking pride

Dave, in your patriotism

Planning to steal from Harry Godwin

his LOLs

A few people will laugh cruelly out of boredom

this morning

so things are done

The Atlas redrawn

From home

Yesterday’s house

Have chatted only online so far and He is mysterious about his job

How long we’ve known each other

Missing

Northern Realism

Things are done so

You can post later on Facebook about having done them

Notice

The missing railing posts

He took 10 minutes to think of a reply

Along the canal

In the hotel dining room

The Private Investigator was asked and he said

Stand back!

Let police conduct their searches

This fecundity

Footsteps echoing

Mid-afternoon

The bus-stop

Waiting there with the baby

Having walked 40 miles or 20 miles

Spat back out as entertainment

like

An asthma inhaler

like

A sports stadium

like

An RAF recruitment show

like

A tattoo

like

A board in Stoke coach station

like

A car

like

A forgotten bar of soap

like

A limited edition Swatch watch

&

like

A long exhalation

wear you bear suit in Manchester

I’ll wrestle you

2010