‘Only promises'

published in Glasgow's City of Poets Annual Review 2025

Give it a reason

and the burden loses weight;

as though lifted a fraction, you wriggle free.

Cog sticking, fog thickening,

where no day breaks.

A solo figure aghast but passive,

calmly trying each lock in turn,

makes fools of tormentors with their faces

smeared against the glass, leering, expectant.

Ambiguous remarks and inconsistencies

do not evaporate in the balmy air

which the fan circulates but cannot replace.

Craning necks, waning wrecks

that the long day breaks down.

Justify, clarify, know the path.

Soon sapped are good intentions and fresh linen.

The collective when all is well,

but when fortunes turn, the blame is allocated.

I cannot stress enough,

so it seems, but the system works for some.

A chosen few destined for the layer above.

Cracks showing, attacks growing

to action when the day breaks.

Defeated; the centre collapses, peace missing

and the maze is unfairly structured:

dead end, dead end, dead end.

There was no route to the centre; only promises.

- giuliano