closed mouths

welcome occupation

of tongue by tongue

gypsy together

enrich each private space

breath ripens

restless unsettling in

make a home in us

shape our tongue

their tongue entwines

with ours

*

Paul Brookes was in poetry performance group “Rats for Love” and is in their “Rats for Love: The Book” Bristol Broadsides, 1989. His first chapbook “The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley” by Dearne Community Arts, 1993. He has read his work on BBC Radio Bristol and had a creative writing workshop for sixth formers broadcast on BBC Radio Five Live. Recently published in Ekphrastic Review, Red Fez, The Bees Are Dead, The Beatnik Cowboy, Clear Poetry, and others.