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Artwork: Leaving Everything He Knows by Will Jacques

Tigers in Cloud Ships
Stephen Philip Druce

Clad in spiked plummet –
stilled vapour rip
as cotton ball angels drift,

sail scratch prowl –
circle bird cluster
in snow coat applause,

suited cream orchestras
abandon scarred circus skies
in chorus salute,

and tigers in cloud ships
roar unmanned –
their sweetest melody.

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Sun Snakes
Stephen Philip Druce

Stirring sword tongues brew
coiling crackle blaze gaudy,

choking rattle slither-peppered
pierce scorch and grip,

splashing bowl of sticky twitching
poison fire sip –

and the sun snakes shout,
they hiss and shout – keep out!

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The Kissagram Cake
Stephen Philip Druce

The kissagram was meant
to leap out of the giant
birthday cake, but
she was found
dead
inside it.

I didn't eat
any cake, but
the other guests
did, until there was
nothing left
but a corpse
lying in the
living room.

The guests were later
struck down with
birthday cake curse –
nightmares of a giant
cake, with hideous pink
writing on the top of it,
spelling the words –
Happy 60th Birthday
(sarcastically)
with candles sticking
into it, and suffocated
between the icing
and the fruit
was the marzipan trapped
inside screaming, and
the crumbs were just
left to rot.

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