Two Poems by Spangle McQueen

PARATAXIS

Yes, I would just like to say I’m sailing with the rock, and I’ll be back, like Independence Day, with Jesus. June 6, like the movie. Big mother ship and all, I’ll be back, I’ll be back.*

Tell me, how are you?

Not pining for a future

that never came

trying to tell the truth

sipping coffee

collecting death sentences

on a mildew mattress

stomach’s growling

catcalling: pure hatred

singing along to Natalie’s

Tigerlily

play Carnival

at my funeral

And God said,

Let there be light:

and there was light

and angels

beyond the beyond

odd

the places music can go

* Last words of Aileen Wuornos, executed October 9th 2002.

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HAUNTOLOGY

Always nostalgic

for the future that never came

ghost of the green haired girl

glares in disdain

grabs the grieving child

on her shoulders

running laughter

chasing moons

leave me here

not here

in a pool of blood

on Magdalen Bridge

outside the hologram shop

3D clock

in a box

girl sitting serene

under a tree

reading a book

was never me

yes

leave me here

with her

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Spangle McQueen is a happy grandma and hopeful poet living in Sheffield. She is proud and grateful to have work accepted and/or published by Three Drops Press; Picaroon; Lonesome October Lit; Bonnie's Crew; Burning House Press; Dwell Collective Zine; Strix; Awkward Mermaid; I am not a Silent Poet; The Writers' Café; Foxglove Journal and Sad Girl Review.