Jude Dillon: The Shadow Room I Keep Secure

Jude Dillon is a poet in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is a photojournalist winning many awards. He has been published in several magazines mostly in England. He has three collections of poetry. He is an editor at Gloom Cupboard an e-zine based in Europe.
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Poems are from The Fractured Garden.

I keep you in the dark
about yourself
new words run out
to catch the mail
the blind monkey who works for magic
licks the stamps
I lost my repertoire
a bottle of red closing up in the dark
a rusty trumpet on a failed street
the grace of you in sloppy clothes
***
All who know you
complain of your kindness
prowling among the sparrows
like a cat
as quick as you look away
a line is loaded on your tongue
finds the shadow-room I keep secure
a prison with a name like yours
corners me
with a yellow bulb in a midnight room
a wicked place
far too spacious to explore
it’s 5 AM and I wonder where to tie the rope
when dawn blows a fuse and puts on her slippers
it’s a beautiful day
for photography
nothing sticks to light like rain
***
I miss the hum of your skeleton
the light you walk through
the dark that presses down
let the rats chew electric wire
let the phone ring
stir a dead martini to life
bring on the olives
the darker girls
the ones with gravity
 
“My Agony,” painting by Jude Dillon

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