Neil Douglas

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I palpitates with joy*

I palpitates with joy.
I precipitates into puddlesome.

I swims into dark blue horizontals
as I conjures your white rabbitness,

inhales your buttered toastedness,
sinks in the warmity of your breath.

I jingles my merriments in song thrush ‒
your proclivity toward tangerines,

that float-squeaky polystyreneness,
your certainty of tangents

from which in zeal with truth-or-dare
I calculates the logarithmic

arc of your traffic light lollipopitude
while I denies not the turmeric possibility 

to gain fingernail purchase
on the precipice ledger of your love.

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*The title is taken from a letter written by artist Fransesc d’Assis Gali to artist Ithell Colquhoun.

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NEIL DOUGLAS worked as a doctor and is currently a student of Life and Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. His poems have appeared in publications in the UK, North America and Hong Kong.