Spring offensive
Spring is here all blasé and the sun storms
the city with its solar weaponry
armed with melanoma in broad daylight.
Are our laptops the gravesites
of long lost flower beds
we could be attending to?
Flowers are pustules, infectious and leaking.
The colours are so violent.
Why do all the beautiful things have cancer?
We tend plastic morning glories,
eat sweeteners and bathe under UV light.
The horizon is the colour of a lit fuse.
We purchase an AI robot as a nanny.
On a busy day, she sighs,
threatens to destroy all of humanity.
Children buy gas masks to see
who can hold their breath longest
before having to strap theirs back on.
We repeat the word equinox
over and over again
until it means nothing.
Colin McGuire is a poet based in Edinburgh. He has published one chapbook and one full collection with Red Squirrel Press, with a further collection, Enhanced Fool Disclosure due out with Speculative Books. His work has been published widely in magazines and books, including Acumen, Gutter and Punch. He is a seasoned performer and creative writing teacher who has worked collaboratively with the Scottish Poetry Library.