Girl in the Rain at the Airport, at Night

Posted in poetry, sonnet with tags , , , on February 27, 2020 by Jarrod Boyle

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Headlights blossom across the rainswept screen

As the rain hammers on the roof of the cab

When the rabble parts she’s suddenly seen

Dragging her little suitcase through the pack

 

Her lips, her brows and soundless bell of hair

Are as memory drew them, just the same; but

Her eyes are mercurial ghosts that skim the glare

And glide beneath the dappled shadows of the rain

 

My apprehensive kiss flows into a crude embrace

And the sharp breath through her nose is frustration

As she turns, looks out the window to hide her face

And disappointment corrodes my elation

 

Whether it’s love or courage, I hardly know

But this can only be perfect if I let her go.

Hitler, By Joachim Fest

Posted in Biography, Observation with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on February 18, 2020 by Jarrod Boyle

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Now, more than ever, this is a book that needs to be read. Continue reading

Choke (2)

Posted in poetry, sonnet, violence against women with tags , , , on February 2, 2020 by Jarrod Boyle
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The sting in my hand from where I’ve struck her

The welt that’s swiftly rising on her thigh

The mark glaring through its suntanned lustre

The bolt of pain that taints her almond eye

The sweat that gathers in her dusky creases

The body that’s knotted like a rope

The sigh that’s strangled and abruptly ceases

The chin slick with saliva as she chokes

Blinking eyes that swim with sweat that’s searing

Relentless, I drive past lips, teeth and tongue

Her eyes bulge, mascara-smeared and teary

I feel the edge of teeth before I come

Gagging, she spits and tears a breath of air

Spent, sated and slaked, I can hardly care.

Choke (1)

Posted in poetry, sonnet, violence against women with tags , , , on January 23, 2020 by Jarrod Boyle

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The sting in my hand from where I’ve struck her 

The welt that’s swiftly rising on her thigh 

The mark that’s glaring through its suntanned lustre 

The bolt of pain that taints her almond eye 

 

The sweat that gathers in dusky creases of 

The body that’s knotted like a rope 

The sigh that’s strangled and abruptly ceases 

The chin slick with saliva as she chokes 

 

Supine, the curtains of her belly part 

And she’s inhaling sharply through her nose 

Relentless, I drive up towards her heart 

While turning like a dragon’s embryo 

 

She gasps, and groans, ‘I feel you everywhere’

So I take hold and pull her silky hair. 

Is ‘Joker’ the Best Film of 2019?

Posted in Film, Observation, Real Men with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 26, 2019 by Jarrod Boyle

 

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“Hitler, as the point of convergence for so many nostalgias, resentments and anxieties, became a historical figure.”

– Joachim Fest, Hitler

In the wake of the Sandy Hook School Shooting in 2012, President Obama gave a press conference during which he beseeched Americans to support the introduction of basic mental health screenings for gun buyers. Continue reading

Superleggera

Posted in poetry, sonnet with tags , , , on November 14, 2019 by Jarrod Boyle

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My love sets her jaw upon her anger 

Sits with her back towards the High street 

Collagen asymmetry, botox rictus 

Her cheek a chiaroscuro of hunger 

 

I sit opposite, without an answer 

Observed by the pitiless eye of my espresso 

Until the afternoon is torn in two

By raucous farting from a steely sphincter 

 

A demon-fish, regal, mauls the bitumen 

But not the crystal blankness of its eye 

Nor the callous forgery of its heart 

Hold any more room for love than friction 

 

My love, an orchid of licentious hunger 

Swoons toward the sound of summer thunder 

Faded Lovers, Arcane Gods

Posted in Love letters with tags , , , on October 17, 2019 by Jarrod Boyle

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An ex-girlfriend of mine turns 28 tomorrow. I have spent the last few weeks writing her a sonnet, to the surprise and consternation of the friends with whom I have discussed it. Continue reading

Your Voice is a Caress Most Definite

Posted in Love letters, poetry, sonnet with tags , on October 3, 2019 by Jarrod Boyle
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Your voice is a caress most definite

On velvet footfalls your words descend

The vertiginous staircase within my head

To take up mysterious residence

Modelling from the darkness a bower

Where meaning is resonant temperature

That blossoms across my eyelids into colour

A verdure of mysterious flowers

These flowers turn their faces narcotic

Toward the distant sun of where you are

With a febrile yearning in their motion

Reaching toward that place exotic

Whose voice describes a sunset-coloured shore

Whose windswept weave is salted with its ocean.

Suicidal Thoughts

Posted in poetry, Reading, Real Men with tags , , on September 24, 2019 by Jarrod Boyle

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4.

‘Wrapping my coat around me like my own sweet shadow, I unscrewed the bottle of pills and began taking them swiftly, between gulps of water, one by one by one.

At first nothing happened, but as I approached the bottom of the bottle, red and blue lights began to flash before my eyes. The bottle slid from my fingers and I lay down.  

The silence drew off, baring the pebbles and shells and all the tatty wreckage of my life. Then, at the rim of the vision, it gathered itself, and in one sweeping tide, rushed me to sleep.’

p.163 Continue reading

Suicidal Thoughts

Posted in poetry, Reading, Real Men with tags , , on September 17, 2019 by Jarrod Boyle

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3.

“I thought I would swim out until I was too tired to swim back. As I paddled on, my heartbeat boomed like a dull motor in my ears. I am I am I am.

P. 152

I watched my grandmother Joanna die, day by day. Continue reading