Home » Valentine's Day in Glasgow 2017 » Off Balance by Magi Gibson – a poem for Valentines

Off Balance by Magi Gibson – a poem for Valentines

Off Balance

You

have knocked

me

off-balance!

I walk like a drunk, tripping

Over dogs, falling off kerbs,

walking out

in front of cars and trucks.

This is so physical,

this disorientation,

this disintegration.

A woman is at the door

returning a leg

I left at the local store.

I look in the mirror,

surprised I’m still there –

Picasso has been messing with my face,

my eyes are on my nose

my ears are on my chin

and Salvador has curled my hair

into a lovesick grin!

I daren’t go out, my body is

diffused with light, I might

dissolve in the sun, I defy

gravity, my head hurts

from bumping off clouds,

your name fizzes on my tongue.

I search books for a cure,

letters dance on the page,

refuse to be read, leap and

spin a crazy jig

to the rhythm of my heart

to the music in my head.

I would call out for help

but my voice has grown wings –

it’s perched out on the window ledge

chirrupping your name.

You have knocked me off-balance.

I think I’m going insane.

I think I’m going

I think I’m going

dot dot dot

       Magi Gibson

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