green sea
shifting
and squirming
light glinting
colours shifting
near-white glimmers
across near-black
light and shadow
betraying life within
and power for more
Aug 10, 2017
Aug 10, 2017 at 6:49 AM UTC
Look at me!
No, not at ME. Look at me.
Look at my smart shoes and carefully matched belt.
Look at my tailored suit, custom lining and fitted shirt.
Look at my intelligent tie and newsworthy socks.
Look at my beautifully groomed face, hands and hair.
Look at me, and respect ME.
But whatever you do, don't look at ME.
Aug 10, 2017
Aug 10, 2017 at 6:46 AM UTC
The alien’s ears listen intently
Every syllable landing deftly
Caught between listening and hearing
He struggles to comprehend their meaning
It's like getting lost in a thick forest
It's dark and lonely, in a crowded house
Familiar words like brief glimpses of daylight on a cloudy day
Meaning hidden behind feverish incomprehensibility
Meaning in every word for the speakers
Every meaning for the speakers in those words
The tool for comprehension and its greatest barrier
Aug 10, 2017
Aug 10, 2017 at 6:44 AM UTC
What’s the harm in joining with a crowd of people
United around a rainbow and a passion for equality?
If it’s true that
God Hates ****
Then we’re in real trouble
Under the colours of His great judgment on the party of depravity
Entitling the parade as
Pride
Which goes before destruction
If it’s true that
God is Love
Then let’s not be offended
There is no need for
Straight Pride Day
Unless I missed the memo
Threatening the death penalty for love and marriage
Is it not the case that the driver for Gay Pride
Is that some are treated differently, judged by their inside
When the rest of humanity can step up and take Pride
In their efforts and achievements, and not what they confide
In their most trusted friends so as to dodge that stereotype?
So why has the parade become the world’s greatest collection
Of the loudest, brashest versions of the most extreme ideas
When almost every gay person I know is almost disappointingly…
Normal?
My Gay-Proudest moment was when I gave a job
To an LGBT chairman, who stood out from the crowd
Not because of his leaning and not because of pity
But for being the best fit and better-skilled than the rest
The Day on which we can be
Gayest and Proudest
Will be the day when there’s no need
For Gay Pride Day
Jul 7, 2017
Jul 7, 2017 at 5:06 AM UTC
Welcome to the stage on which
Life is lived as a performance
Welcome to the office in which
Every day is a job interview, where
Work is nothing more than being looked at
And admired
And despised
And envied
Welcome to a new bank account, with
More money than anyone needs, and
More pressure than anyone deserves, to
Spend it as tabloids demand
Welcome to criticism, for clothing choices –
Too last-year
Too slutty
Too creative
Too similar to someone else
Not flattering enough
Not slutty enough
Not daring enough
Welcome to scrutiny, over
Every romantic detail
Every baby’s name
Welcome to mockery
Welcome to an opportunity to
Use your voice
Take a stand
Make a change
Welcome to pressure to
Toe the line
Stay mainstream
Take no risks
Welcome to a new form of slavery, offering
Wealth and adoration
Freedom for some and shackles for others
Welcome to a ruined, wasted life lived short of its potential –
Relationships missed
Role in the home passing by, and
A tempting, all-you-can-eat buffet of mental health issues
Welcome to a new status, to be
Cool
The centre of attention
Off trend
Forgotten
Welcome to the celebrity contradiction
Attention-grabbers, with
Demands for privacy
Welcome to someone just like
Me –
And
You
Jul 5, 2017
Jul 5, 2017 at 5:54 AM UTC
What does it mean
To be a man
Or a woman
?
Does a man
Become less male
And more female
If an accident reminiscent
Of one Lemony Snicket
Led to the removal of
One ugly piece of flesh
?
Does a woman
Become more of a woman
When the internal organs
Begin reproduction
According to the textbooks
?
Which part of
You is wrong
When there is a discrepancy
Between brain and ******
?
Or is there greater beauty
In uncertainty and ambiguity
As liberal and conservative admit
In humility, that
In truth
“I don’t know”
?
Jul 4, 2017
Jul 4, 2017 at 6:29 AM UTC
Slow peek
Whiskers twitch
Pause
Little twitch
Nostrils flare
Pause
-
Immediate acceleration
Straight-ahead scurry
Speedy tick-tack of claws on hard floor
Cat appears
Screechy scratchy panic spinner
Ducking skidding
Heart racing
Slalom chair legs
Cat crashing, collapsing
Running home hungry
Barely in time
-
Re-prepare to retry
Jul 3, 2017
Jul 3, 2017 at 11:09 AM UTC
You’re telling a story of a recent holiday
It reminds me of a funny joke I know about a panda with a penchant for French bread
I launch into it, enjoying your company, engaged in the action
But midway through speaking I stop
-
The scorpion that just appeared on the table is huge
Poison-filled tail arched over its back
It opens its mouth, revealing three rows of teeth
And prepares itself to strike your hand
I want to yell out but I’m frozen in dread
You seem more concerned about me than yourself
No, not concerned – confused
Can’t you see it, the creature right there on the
On the–
-
It’s gone, like the others have before
Back to the secret place in my brain
I know they’re not real
Or, I know they’re not real until I see them again
-
I try to return to the joke I had started but now you’re distracted
You make your excuses – not bad ones, I’ve had worse – and leave
Leave me to the voice of The Reminder
Who tells me once more that they’re coming to get me
They’ve not caught me yet but it won’t take them long
Jul 3, 2017
Jul 3, 2017 at 9:17 AM UTC
I recently learned about
A Frenchman called Firmin Didot
Who invented the idea of replica parts
To speed up the accurate printing of newspapers
Its name entered the dictionary in 1850
14 years after Didot’s death
His name is now a webfont
I subsequently learned about
An American called Walter Lipmann
Who used Didot’s invention’s name
In criticism of the mass-printed newspapers
For influencing readers’ perceptions of reality
86 years after Didot’s death
The name of his invention:
The Stereotype
Jun 30, 2017
Jun 30, 2017 at 8:28 AM UTC
What was the last thing you forgot?
I thought I’d forgotten about Chumbawamba
Their song about not remembering whether they had amnesia
And discovered the reasons we forget
There are three
Sometimes the memory is simply lost
I fail to record it
I struggle to retrieve it
I lose it through the passage of time
And I may as well never have learned it
Sometimes the memory was never right
A subtle hint overwrites it
A trick of the mind confuses where I got it
A belief or assumption filters and interprets it
And surely I learn to trust my memory less
And then, of course, I could repress it
Squash it into the back of my mind
Remembering Freud’s unproven theories
Hoping that what’s left behind
Leaves me feeling more positive
Jun 26, 2017
Jun 26, 2017 at 7:19 AM UTC