Rearrange

Windows whisper snowy words
Out into black bird dusk
Crossing the road like paper bags

They leave their marks like chalked lines
Of ghosts, H. G. Wells, Victorian Times
And a red arrow
Shaped like a zigzag.

It once belonged in someone’s chest,
The one in a crowd and all the rest.
They were...
So hopeful
Once.

Grooms and brides, iridescent white
Or just love-making and romantic words
Left all it’s worth on a wall
Where people piss.

It says ‘love is just a word’
Say what you want, that’s fucking absurd
No amount of repetition makes it true.

Your calligraphy is violent
To match the heartbeat you made silent,
We share your pain when they took your noise,
Drowned it out.

We’re all broke like hyphens you drew
Pinball machines, poor man’s stew,
But there’s always change lying in the gutter.

Get yourself home, food in your mouth,
Think about the summer
When you’ll go south,
Meet the soul-mate smiling
They’re from Somerset.

They’ll teach you about how to surf
And lightning bolts, how they surge
When you kiss for that first time by the arcade.

Maybe then
Your words will change,
Mix about and rearrange
Hateful words your drunken past
Punched

Into a wall
Where people look
Nodding, they understood
You mean to say

‘word adjust is love’