David McLean is from Wales but has lived in Sweden since 1987. He lives there with partner, dog and cats. In addition to six chapbooks, McLean is the author of three full-length poetry collections: CADAVER’S DANCE (Whistling Shade Press, 2008), PUSHING LEMMINGS (Erbacce Press, 2009), and LAUGHING AT FUNERALS (Epic Rites Press, 2010). His first novel HENRIETTA REMEMBERS is coming shortly.

and desire

and desire is a greasy machine
that determines the provenance of being,
that says where questions may be asked
as well as why answers are often irrelevant
and always wrong;

tells why the light sleeps so long in the trees
and the sun rolls so contented in the hands of scarabs
every night, assuming the innocent form
of shit. and why suns may do this
because they are temporary gods,

just like everything else is
as long as it lives or does not live


as if nothing

and each streetlight sings the town
beautiful and nothing, the road
that winds towards it from dirt
and a childhood worth forgetting
walking as if eternity through slow rain
and the memory of nostalgic water
that wanted to reach back through forever
to where it all started,
seashells and songs and absences

under different lights
in a different life

when the collars of children's shirts
were scrubbed with soap before school
and dirty was the devil
hiding in dusty corners
where words were, where worlds were
fallen

and death this inscrutable missing thing
still, so we never worried
that we do not know how many pigeons there are
exactly, or even if their number be odd or even
but collars were clean
and it was inappropriate dreaming
certain sorts of dreams
about fucking or freedom,
about the point of being