Two Poems by James Knight

Grammar Lesson

grammar is when the afternoon forgets itself

there are lines everywhere

            the page

            the room

            the window frame

            the horizon

she tries to keep inside

            in the attic lives a certified darkness

            waiting to think or play

she holds the cut men

sings to their bones

The Wooden Father

the wooden father works rapidly at your sores

pearly wisdom gleaming on his brow

                        there is music

            coming from the flowers under the stairs

                                    or perhaps from your mouth

            the night advances like calamity

the wooden father uses

syringes chains and laughter

to progress from one site to the next

                        it is best to keep your fingers still

                        but I think you know that already

the wooden father creaks and snorts

vapour from his crabbed lungs paints masterpieces in the air

you could always run away

            but the memories would bring you back

a pious mother waits

on the other side

of the moon

James Knight is an experimental poet and digital artist. Void Voices, his reimagining of Dante’s Inferno, was published by Hesterglock Press in 2018. Website: thebirdking.com and Twitter.