John Bartlett

John Bartlett is the author of three novels, a collection of short stories and published non-fiction as well as two Chapbooks and a full poetry collection Awake at 3am. He lives in southern Australia and was the winner of the 2020 Ada Cambridge Poetry Prize and blogs at: beyondtheestuary.com

the taste of the wolf

with a furtive touch of lips by love wounded

a man will often kiss as if licking honey

I heard thunder when the fly hit the window

then the echo in the Amazon forests

a man will often kiss as if licking honey

the snake lurk behind fragrant flowers

was there an echo in the Amazon forest

the night that we first kissed?

does a snake lurk behind fragrant flowers

the air undulating with dragonflies

the night that we first kissed

when every sense was electrified?

the air undulated with dragonflies

like the taste in the mouth of the wolf

when every sense was electrified

land charged by wind and deceit

did you taste the mouth of the wolf

wash your hair in low-dwelling clouds

in land charged by wind and deceit

with just a furtive touch of lips wounded by love?