Matthew Johnson

Spaghetti Carbonara is a taste
To savour. Every six months I need
The bacon submerged in delicate cheese;
The pasta, soft, with which I stuff my face,
...

Dear love (though not so dear) , have pity on me:
Do not taunt me thus, leave me be. I am
Broken and spent, like an old beggar bent
With years of living but on sufferance.
...

A new year has come around.
A new start: fresh, post the past;
With new snow fallen on the ground,
And the hope this year won't pass too fast.
...

The city of Pamplona
Is so beautiful in August.

You say you don't remember?
...

Every chilli meal I make alone
Is different to those we made together.
We would play chess, crack open the first ale
And sit outside to chat away the night.
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Images from the back of the mind
Distorted into grotesque parodies
Of ourselves and of space and time
Raising certain similarities
...