The Mess of Thrown Off Clothes

June 24, 2025

Strider Marcus Jones

i listen
to your love beads glisten
in the flotsam
of my room-
 
we make them
from samurai sword folds
at forge and loom
in the mess of thrown off clothes.
 
so many smoke me kisses
at portal doors,
and mithril wishes
on primitive floors-
 
take us back again
through heath and fen
to imitate
lost landscape-
 
cycle
and circle
sky and stone
outside and home-
 
in love in less
with your heavenliness,
and loneliness
durable under duress.

Strider Marcus Jones is a poet, law graduate, and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. He is the editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal (lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com). A member of The Poetry Society, nominated for the Pushcart Prize x3 and Best of the Net x3, his five published books of poetry (stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com) reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. His poetry has been published in numerous publications including Poppy Road Review, The Galway Review, The Huffington Post USA, The Stray Branch Literary Magazine, Crack The Spine Literary Magazine, The Lampeter Review, Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine, and Dissident Voice.

This poem appeared in Record of Dissent: Poems of Protest in an Authoritarian Age — Summer 2025, published by The Chaos Section Poetry Project. We’ll be featuring each poem from the collection individually in the weeks ahead. You can read the full collection or download a free PDF of the chapbook here.