Alex MacDonald

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The Convenient Rip

people have their perforated edges
designed to tear apart
I am feeling the convenient rip
as the night offers its distractions
a cat discovers its reflection
a violet sky shrugs
and a gale breaks branches
that fall like fossilised lightning
some great power now diverted
how much can change overnight
a child may wake up to snow
or snails signing autographs
on a winter window
but underneath he is often
a boy with too many teeth
who knows how to be alone
you sit and talk to everything
personalities are endless
each chair every carpet
has their thick moods
and understated yearnings
stains like birth marks
becoming a pattern of life
I try to begin at the beginning
a copy made of water
allow me to take this shape
be reflective and slow to change
offer an image back to you
that breaks and remains still

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ALEX MACDONALD lives and works in London. His pamphlet Knowing This Has Changed My Ending was published in 2018 by Offord Road Books. His next pamphlet Delicious All Day is out with Sad Press in late 2020.