the poet's house

Ben Simmons

Father and mother taught poets to wander
in the garden and to hold a dislodged heart 
between their chin and chest.

The game? To pass it between them, 
arteries spitting blood into fuchsia petals
and valves clapping, slack as the clothesline

their hands tied behind their back.

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Ben Simmons is a writer, musician and a selected poet for Poetry Ireland’s Introductions Series in 2016. His work has been published regularly in Ireland and the UK.  In 2021 he relocated with his wife to Riverside, California.