Extracts from "holiday"

i) a couple of things I'm sure of: the sea, green with envy for the smoothness of the sky the bulb of stubble you'd missed that morning but as for why I came? or why I thought you'd asked me? I blame the sea; it seems broad enough to take the weight of it, and the weight of ships, on its back

ii) you're asleep on the half-eaten sandwich of the bed it's the first of November, it's 11:35 in the vodka-cheap light of a moon made blurry from frost you blush and shake your feet, as if there were a dream of dancing inappropriately there is nothing new to say about the sea

About the poet: Andrew McMillan has been poet-in-residence of his own life since October 1988. His poetry and articles have been published widely in online and print journals. His debut pamphlet Every Salt Advance was published by Red Squirrel Press in October 2009. He is co-editor of Cake magazine.