Blowoff Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 1. Haiku Playground 3. Endure 4. Falling up 5. Paper cups 6. Yes, I know 7. Shed light 8. Countdown 9. Chasing dawn 10. Breaking the finite 11. Cleave 12. Knowing 13. Confinement 14. Writing this poem 15. Tailspin 16. Impulse to implode 17. Temper 18. Unhinged 19. Sitting naked 20. Remembering Jonah 21. Lazarus 22. There's nothing to eat here 23. Jam sessions 24. Facing the Blowoff 25. Void and vault 2. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 To You, With Everything Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 1. With a hop, skip and a jump, the three little lines drew the universe. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 2. (i) Winnie the Pooh looks out through heavy pink drapes, waiting for the mistress to come home. A little boy builds his fort of shrivelled leaves set alight by the stark glare of lamposts. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 2. (ii) Twenty years on, the spill of Jack n' Jill's chips. They slipped on cheesy rings. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 2. (iii) A decade down a violent seesaw balances owing to a fulcrum which bore polarities. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 3. In a heap on an island, stuck In mandarin on a door – 'Endure' Wood, seamed without purpose. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 4. (i) Search the sky through my window; sometimes through tinted pane you bear witness to my dreams even if I struggle to find your place in them. When the world's the wrong way up I'll slide down a moonbeam into the midnight pool you made so we could wade amongst the stars and dance, above the concrete. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 4. (ii) In slumber, I am wont to linger on cutting fragments. Speak not, now the buffeting curtain winds. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 5. Friday night, under sultry skies, canopies billow to the beat of You and I You and I Floating words between coffee, we paused by the bay, trading Worries for phantom ships and floodlights on the horizon sang as we lay on the river, drifting. “The lights, they sing your name!” Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 6. You spent an hour, telling How She Wasn't Worth Your Time. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 7. Can we witness beauty without tension between the sacred and profane in a sublime second we choose as our legs urge while our heart murmurs that we cannot run from that which runs in our veins Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 8. (i) The days shed rays. In waning glow, we polish dinner and exchange notes. For a season after, we watch the clouds score tunes in dirt and sustain our humming to the strains of silence. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 8. (ii) Drinking in the rain of fireworks; high on spirits, the crowd emptied out on shore, ebbing with the waves and the revival of morning's due. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 9. Like a fugitive: only darkness holds. Dodge shots, but loaded needles sink in. Expel tar every half-second, forgetting that it follows every breath, drawn. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 10. He spent a generation trying to pen Stories with which he'd try to beat time While the one that came naturally, got left behind. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 11. Waking, it's clear you're here, inside me like a fissure. Stare at that gash on my couch, foaming at a pus-filled memory. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 12. We were engaged, She and I, in a race across the desert, to finish a line drawn by our toes we huddled relenting, against a sand dune we both did not recognise. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 13. Imagine the sky behind a dozen signs you can't follow that cursor beyond your screen, a migrative flutter. Behind your ribs, an arrhythmic percussion belies your stillness. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 14. (i) 'Hello, stranger are you a strayer, or the bitter stayer? I lost you, in a metaphor.' Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 14. (ii) A wrest with contrivances purring, in black and white unrest, a last glance at stillborn forms before submitting to a voice infinitely greater yet harder, to apprehend. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 14. (iii) Reap What ancient fingers have sewn In threads of your subconscious, do not apologise for being Confident, about your existence Present, in a moment Your naked self, when blinds are drawn and night is nigh. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 14. (iv) Hear the steady tick of a companion, counting Minutes till lightness when words may engulf but never eclipse your rage. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 14. (v) Poised on a parched note, you realise the water you require is not a liquid. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 15. (i) How long do we have to beg and will it make the slightest difference? Do not trust ourselves, to speak when few things are of so much consequence. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 15. (ii) Swaying, we stood at the precipice, dazed by visions of extravagance. Measure the lines of our youth and the earth in our eyes. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 15. (iii) We could halt this craft, bring our urges to a grind but I have nothing to offer now, save my lips, parting company. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 16. (i) 'System not responding. Would you like to End Now? Please remember to close all programs that may still be running. Computer is shutting down. _' Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 16. (ii) ''This system has recovered from a serious error. Would you like to send an Error report? _' Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 16. (iii) 'The computer has been shut down to prevent further damage to your system. If this is the first time you are seeing this error, restart your computer. If not, disable all newly installed hardware and software, or call your manufacturer for assistance.' Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 17. In the absence of cover keep close watch over the brew. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 18. (i) Jarred bits of flesh from a broken chair spine awaken me to the reasons some people cut themselves, waiting for something to tide them over. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 18. (ii) I wish for deliverance to recall magnificence for sides to split so we can mend. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 19. Across your eyes a flicker halts our dalliance. Mesmerised by your sheen, lit by a flash of unspoken, I resist the urge to unbutton your chest; unearth the source of a life paved with blood and bygone bliss. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 19. I will not finger every tone nor pry up your sleeves but undress, wanting you to induce in us, a current supplanting apprehension. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 20. (i) So many grounds to break and still I can't decide to grieve or go No lack of clues but a pack of cards, given to gust Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 20. (ii) What good are choices when we were made models, in some grand play, lifting arms to a faraway drum we don't dare disown our gold and red faces, charming but always doubting With strings cut, will we stand? Rendered human, we dip into a champagne pool all the while trying to figure why the waters which spat us up are biting at our ankles. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 21. Lie bound, even in death Lying in straits, Lying in preparation, Lying, till a voice lures me to an outlet I need someone to strip off these embalments, expose unabashed rawness which will lesion into souvenirs I can't misplace or have the capacity to hide. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 21. They're watching me emerge from a cavity, hewn from folly, refusing weight of human construct with the quiet force of a rising son. Halting questions why I dealt portents a familiar self's return: An image cannot hurt. But neither does it live. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 22. I crust. Ends lie, on the counter. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 23. Spread on bread. Corner to corner, cut. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 24. An organ recalls the refrain of a wedding march. Shafts, slip a subdued draft bends; behind harlequin flame on the altar, shadows genuflect, in what gentle truths remain. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 25. If in time, hope buries its head between your legs; spectres of cars climb your walls and make you think: "I could barter soul for shirt, trade excuses for currency" or wonder, how best to greet pavement, watching receding faces curling beneath firmament, know how far heaven fell to catch you - we'll meet again perhaps in a final burst before the sun melts into sand. Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008 -------------------------------------------------------------------This book and its contents is an exertion of faith; in and of God, mentors, family, friends; in myself, life and the world at large. -------------------------------------------------------------------Blowoff © 2008 Clare Tan. All rights reserved. This is an online edition which may be saved, printed and transmitted verbatim, for noncommercial purposes and with full credit to the author. Get a copy at http://simplequirk.com/blowoff -------------------------------------------------------------------Email: simplequirk@gmail.com Online residence: http://simplequirk.com -------------------------------------------------------------------- Blowoff © Clare Tan 2008