2 poems

by Sy

stems

flowers drain

from a cheap print shirt

seep to the earth

roots falling downwards falling roots

these petals shall see light

no more 

staring through the surface

for a glimpse of my back

your wrist is full

Another timepiece tears into place,

pendulum rat king, pumping syringe

cogs not so delicate

now their mask has burned

in the sunlight, but 

time does not surrender 

to the discrete points of a body,

regardless of the fabric beneath, does not

give love for a second guess, 

or even a first, all it knows

is your pulse 

against its back

and the feel

of you sleeping.

Sy is a queer non-binary Scottish poet. They write through the haze of cat-/child-induced sleep deprivation to make sense of gender, relationships, and ADHD. Their work has been published in Popshot Quarterly, Perhappened, and Capsule Stories, among others. Find them at sybrand.ink and on Twitter @TartanLlama.