FOUR Poems

Crispin BEST

Hello

i love it when cows eat the floor
and if you let yourself
it can almost hurt
to wonder where a helicopter went

i know in my heart that i’m a cowboy
i know that i’m here to try to help
put your bad fortune back inside the cookie

i know that i’m here for the moment
that the pickles hit the plate
i’m here for good and to pair your socks
by windowlight

and to the man who told me there is too much me
in my poems
hello

One Good Thing

the ceiling fan just lives there
i touch your back
while the sun does
and later on the empty bus home
roll off the seat when we corner too fast

and stay on the floor
for a moment thinking
one good thing
about being alive
is the view

Who Else

i tell the same stories
again and again
because who else is going to
and what are the builders making

apart from a racket
the black mould in my room makes it feel
like the wall is learning something

i tell my computer i’m not a robot
when it asks
because who else is going to

i can’t believe you thanked me
for sleeping in your bed

if a tree falls in the forest
that’s fine

Don’t Worry

if you find yourself downwind from the fountain
don’t worry
when you die you just
become a children’s magician

and in fact relax

ghosts don’t kill people
because imagine how awkward it would be afterwards
don’t worry
not even in the fountain spray
with everywhere the rude dispersal of light

^{Crispin BEST studied English at UEA and completed a masters in Creative Writing at the University of Manchester. His writing has appeared in Dazed & Confused, AQNB, The Quietus, clinic, Pain and in the “Best British Poetry” series (Salt). He has performed his poetry in New York, Chicago, Berlin, Madrid, Melbourne, Edinburgh, Reykjavík and at the Serpentine Gallery, London. Crispin’s first pamphlet was published by Faber in its New Poets series, and his second, ok, was published by If a Leaf Falls Press. These poems are taken from Crispin’s debut collection Hello published by Partus Press (2019); see here.}