VARIABLE CONTRASTS for Tom Shapcott

by Stefanie Bennett

Now you've returned
From the Baltics
Hurling broken oars
At the Strait's
Dizzying
Shock-waves,
An irrepressible
Frontier
Beckons -:
                Klee's aspic
Renaissance and
Eluard's "The wind,
Undecided, rolls
A cigarette of air..."

Within the Charnel House
You're knee-high deep
                                   Again
... Hesitating.
It's not
Passe fanaticism that
Coagulates -,
But the knowledge
Of it.

THE TREPIDATION ACT

by Stefanie Bennett

Renegade neutrons
Fall apart
Laughing
On the front lawn
- Yet you, with
Your cold
Aerial of soul's
Clip-board
                Hand them
A clean bill
Of health...

Strange how
A 'for real'
Shooting star's
Never around
When
You want one.