& a shout-out to all you lovesick souls
with battered hearts who never get their head
around the fact that to abseil without
a rope will nearly always end in tears
it’s late enough to be the early hours
whether you’re in love or Newport Pagnell
I regained consciousness parched & haunted
by a monster who said its name was Love
at first it seemed full of the joys of spring
as it clutched my heart in one of its claws
while my Madonna slept slumped in its arms
but then Love made her wake up with a start
& fed her with torn-off chunks of my heart
before it rinsed its bloody hands & left