little ants
i am sorry that i used to collect you in matchboxes
in my pocket, far away from the rest of your family
i was young and had yet to discover how cold life can be
without the soft crawling of other bodies
little poem of hope
on my way to kill myself i met
a very friendly cat, so i turned around
we are all decomposing slowly
so that is of some comfort
we are all semen/blood/dying stars
so that is of some comfort
when i was young my mother told me i could choose the colour of the sky
so i chose invisible because i wanted to say hello to god but when the infinite is transparent you do not see god or the end of all things, you see yourself staring back and you are full, so very full of everything
—
STUART BUCK (HE/HIM) is a visual artist and award-winning poet living in North Wales. His art has been featured in several journals, as well as gracing the covers of several books. His third poetry collection, Portrait of a Man on Fire, is forthcoming from Rhythm & Bones Press in November 2020. When he is not writing or reading poetry he likes to cook, juggle, and listen to music. He suffers terribly from tsundoku—the art of buying copious amounts of books that he will never read.
Twitter: @stuartmbuck
