tinsel & black wrapping paper

john was here again
this morning
with
sly grins &
nothing
in his hands

said mary
was delayed with all
the ailments of the season

it grows
in scanned corners
dark
& feeding i
am lighter
sleeping we’ll
unwrap presents in the morning

Reuben Woolley has been published in Tears in the Fence, The Lighthouse Literary Journal, The Interpreter’s House (forthcoming) and Ink Sweat and Tears, among others. His collection, the king is dead was published in 2014 and a chapbook, dying notes, in 2015. Runner-up: Overton Poetry Pamphlet competition and the Erbacce Prize in 2015. Editor: I am not a silent poet and The Curly Mind.