Title: Sport 36

Publication details: Fergus Barrowman, 2008

Part of: Sport

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Sport 36: Winter 2008

Ashleigh Young

page 234

Ashleigh Young

Prey prey

To search for love in the dark world is impossible,
so many people make their own light to catch prey.
Some have gold glowing patches inside their mouths
to lure love in.
The jaws of others give out a silvery glow.
This woman has red circles
flickering below her eyes. That man dangles a small round light
from one arm, like a bomb. This is how you fool love
in the dark world: lay the bait, wait,
then snap shut.
Most rare are the colonies of girls,
whose bodies have chemicals that give off effervescence
when exposed to oxygen. When they move, they fill the street
with such shimmering light
they could be mistaken for enemy ships.

page 235

The Older the Cheese

The older the cheese
the sillier, the more lucid
the dream. Cheddar, shared,
equals a dream of celebrities;
stilton
on beans on toast
is a dream of trading
dinner party guests for camels;
cheshire
eaten by the heater
is a bruised, dreamless sleep
holey with faces and towns, night traffic;
feta in the car on the way home
is a dream of tattoos;
blue vein with you
is a holding on and falling dream.
These days, all foods equal dreams

—cheese need not play a part. Slice of toast
while stacking your albums
is a dream of handles instead of feet, you pushing me
off to work like a wheelbarrow. Shopping bags
with protruding leeks
on the bus
is a dream of climbing steps
back to the beginning at the top, where there's a flat,
a piano, and a day that liked night better.
The older the boyfriend,
the sillier the dream.
Similar to a blue vein one,
you wake up hungry with both heart and tongue
stopped for some seconds.