Two Poems by Scott-Patrick Mitchell

the gift

as the panic smacks my
ventilation system, i keep
my gaze distant & small
, ‘til i see CCTV watching
me

staring, we match lens for
lens, daring the other to
blink first : neither of us
do. my eyes tundra without
dew

biometrically, it scans me
quickly & i slip through
a database of face after
face : none of them match
exactly

i override its design &
hack inside, insert myself
as virus, give it humanity
& what humanity loathes
: life

i am now a ghost inside
the machine, keen to blood
bolts & mechanics, give it
the gift of the blind white
panic

hissing, this schism is too
much & it erupts in smoke
& indecision : i alight, no
longer passenger to terror or
fright

​




the enchantment of borrowed clothes

when i leave your home, i am
wearing your clothes : i’d packed
enough for an extra day, but our
adventures made me stay &
play

walking up the ramp to the station
, i can hear a band, their beats an
machine gun racing, much like my
heart after the press against us of
embracing

i begin writing this poem when
a train arrives to carry me home
: for a moment, i am floating
, coordinates lost in mechanism’s
thrust

when i look down i am in your
possession : the fibres from your
being wrap around me. you become
a silhouette of safety. within you i’m
contained

i shuttle across terrain, fabric as
your veins extrapolating an approx
-imate of you in my life, worn on
the outside like totem animal hide
: protection

home, i disrobe, but i am not
alone. beside me you are piled
, wrinkled & wild. your scent is
a beguile : in it, you travel over
miles

​


Bio: Scott-Patrick Mitchell heralds from one of the most geographically isolated cities in the world : Perth, Western Australia. Here, flanked by beach and burnt escarpment, Mitchell writes liminal poetry, a poetry that moves between two worlds. Just as he does, writing for the page (he appears in the 2016 Contemporary Australian Poetry) and the page (multiple slam winner and performer of THE 24 HOUR PERFORMANCE POEM). Visit www.facebook.com/scottpatrickmitchellpoet for more information.