Thomas Whittaker
The Only Faith Based Methadone Clinic In America
a quiet
pain
an avarice
televised
bedsheets of
a fragile peace
in autumn frost
a rowhouse
in freight horn
i remember
this was in
the car when i was
kind of
in liver and calf
for soothing
bootlegged
memory perfumed
by carryout &
a christmas stink
of juvenile daydream
of haunted lips
being
pride
for apricity
emptied &
diplomatic
a tabby cat church
kissing grafitti
in hospital glare
rabbit-lit
there is absolution
heartsick
stopping at the light
the theatre of a general readiness for entering the world of labour
an economy
lulling
to be floated
broadcast
a blanket
shopfront
checks-cashed
dawn’s regret
liquored in
what was
of comfort
in thawed limbs
unanswered
fog.
of peat-blue
midnight for
an ice-floe
urinated
stop-sign softness
‘coming out’
tattooed
a liberation
by a lover’s
telephone wires,
potholes,
pickle effluent,
whispering
a cold-cut embrace
for swollen hearts
supposed to be?
Thomas Whittaker (they/she) is a writer of poems from South London. They write from a queer Marxist perspective about alienation under capitalism in the urban environment. She is currently particularly influenced by the writing of Antonio Negri and Félix Guattari and the music of Fennesz and Mozzy. They enjoy using obtuse basketball references in their work. She has been published by Passion of the Weiss, Impossible Archetype, TEXTUS and Ouch! Collective, and will appear in issues 95 and 97 of miniMAG and the upcoming edition of Blow Up Britain. They can be found @thomaswithdoubt on Twitter and @acidsynthline on Instagram.