On the Slink

Bottles in gutters,

alley cats on the slink

under streetlamps that crystallise

in the corners of my eyes —

shopping trolleys gliding by

like giant legless ice skates —

this brittle night taken out of the fridge —

it’s spring but cold still,

still as glass.

Sobering up, a breeze —

if I cast a rock up through the air,

between the wires, the tooting owls,

beyond the rooftops

into the twisting funnel of stars —

I could almost crack open the night

and swig.

(highly commended in the Aesthetica

Creative Works Competition, 2011)