Simon French

things you need to know

i slept with a man who believed only water tells the truth. he lived in a chapel & was full 

of nettle stew & guilt. every week someone would leave a loudhailer on his doorstep not

 knowing if he had wisdom to spare. the ghost of a moth he killed last year circled us at  

night. he drove an old army jeep. late summer gave him the dust to hide behind. you know  

him. he has a photograph of you. taken when you could charm kites on a windless day.   

it’s nailed to a telegraph pole & the poacher wants to stuff it in his howling pocket. today  

our differences are on display. my stomach raw & holy. you picking chickweed & listening  

for capsized mouths singing from the river. we should leave them to their autopsies. collect  

our footsteps in a paper bag. scatter them along the road. let’s leak our autographs onto the  

estuary’s lips. i’ll become water tugging you down. you will be the lie that keeps us afloat.

Simon French has had one poetry collection published - Joyriding Down Utopia Avenue (Coverstory Books 2021). He has had many poems published in magazines including The Interpreter’s House, Orbis, Ambit, The Rialto and The London Magazine. He is currently a member of the Derby Stanza workshop group. Previously he hosted open-mic poetry nights in Derby and has read extensively at venues around the country.