Paul Stephenson

CUT FLOWERS

You know daffodils?
Well if you came up to us in a bar
and asked if we were together
and I happened to be holding 
a bunch of daffodils

 I’d say, kind of, but not really,
not in the traditional sense
of daffodils, not as in a bunch
held tight with an elastic band
so they don’t fall apart

but bunched nonetheless
in a way that two or more 
daffodils in springtime
complement each other,
create a certain yellow effect.

Nocturne

I like to watch you sleep                     when you’re asleep

and I’m not sleeping                           and maybe I watch you

sleeping when I’m asleep too             there besides you

in my dreams I mean                          me and you sleeping

Sometimes I think you only                sleep to be watched sleeping

that I only stay over at yours              so I can watch you

me pretending to sleep                        to be asleep but not sleeping

the whole night awake watching        your sleeping going on

(when the sun comes up                     does the night doze off?

does the night lay awake?                   is the night good at sleeping?)

On your back I watch                         your left eye closed tight 

watch your mouth                               your saliva foaming 

bubbles on your lips                           which is when I love you                       

my rabid little dog who one day         will snap awake and bite me

Paul Stephenson’s debut collection Hard Drive (Carcanet, 2023) was shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award and Polari Book Prize. He recently co-edited the ‘Ownership’ (92) issue of Magma.

Paul wrote this about these poems:

Both poems explore togetherness and a relationship. In poetry, daffodils belong to Wordsworth so it’s a challenge to write a poem that features them but here with ‘Cut Flowers’ the plain-speaking poem brings them to a contemporary urban setting. ‘Nocturne’ explores love, the intimacy and vulnerability of nighttime and the sharing of a bed, as well as the tension between quiet stasis and surprise behaviour/drama, the unknowing.