swifts  &  s l o w s · a quarterly of crisscrossings

parallel and then joined
Kris Spencer

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My Son Explains the Nature of Water

water is not really wet / it is just what we are feeling /
sometimes I feel like a tree / with a hundred thousand leaves /
all dripping after the rain / or a river eroding a dry river bank /
or the monsoon making farmers glad / as they try to fathom /
the mystery of the skies // the sensation of wetness comes from surface tension /
I float on a meniscus / sometimes I skate / sometimes I am still /
so I will not sink / and try to be a mirror of unbroken flatness /
like a pond on a summer’s day // water is not wet / it just makes things feel wet /
if you place a cool metal disk on someone’s forehead /
they might think it is water / they might think it will drip //
in space / water forms perfectly round spheres / in the spinning capsule /
spilled water wouldn’t sound / or stream but only / split apart / in silence //

In the Green Morning Here is Someone New

After Lorca

Grey road / Red house /
Grey moon / Yellow night /
Behind high clouds / Moon spins /
A moorhen calls by the lake.

Green path / Blue door /
Blue grass / Red gate /
Below an open balcony / A river flows /
A girl’s voice cries to the night.
.
White rings / White necklace /
Black eyes / Black sand /
By the waterline / A night heron barks /
A boy waits beneath the hooded cliff.

Yellow cotton / Red hands /
Green breeze / Red soil /
On the bank / Spears of lilies /
They sleep on broken flowers.

Black pony / White moon /
Black hills / Red water /
In a lonely place / The old sound /
A gentle wind turns the wheat.

Every Chance That I Take

And once,
you let the car

skid on the asphalt
of the hotel car park.

I loved it. The calligraphy
of the burnout marks

looped against
the hard-edges

of the precast architecture.
Like something by

Lee Krasner. The black lines
parallel, and then joined

where you turned the wheel
to stop. Everything suddenly

soft and round,
in the smoke.

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Kris Spencer is an internationally published writer with poems in journals in the UK, US, Eire, mainland Europe, SE Asia and Australia. He’s a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a poet in residence for a group of schools in London where he runs poetry classes, workshops and events for pupils, parents and teachers.  His debut collection of poetry, Life Drawing, was published by Kelsay Books in 2022 and  his newest collection, Contact Sheets will also be published by them, early 2024.