My breath escapes in fluttered
spurts as I chance upon again
The Dog, leashed and collared,
guarding some plant pots
in solemn contemplation.

A short chain winds up
a stark red pole, attached
loosely to some rusted railings.
It appears as if he could go
flailing out and struggle free
if a momentary scent or sound
would strike him.

His ear flinched,
as if the rustle of a leaf,
before returning to its duty.

when your feeling down you lock yourself away
then you draw the curtains  blocking out the day
mind is in a whirl thoughts running through your head
bottling your troubles wishing you were dead

feel youve had enough feel that you cant cope
giving up on life giving  in up on hope
it dosent have to be that way.  theres places you can go
someone to tell your troubles to speak out let them know

they will help you through in your darker days
help you to believe life has better ways
give you back the hope see life differently
then you can  find yourself and who your meant to be

all it takes is you to turn it all around
believe in you once more  and again be found

the moon has died in a poem
overused and forlorn
its avatar is rising
in blazig pixels and scorn

we are at this threshold
one foot in the moon
the subtelty of dying will be
presented on Zoom

Godot isn't coming but
I am waiting too

The starry night is consumed
By vapid moonlight;
Mere reflections shine
In an orange glow,
Like a cut-out hole
In black cardboard,
In front of blazing torchlight,
Forgotten reflections of memories
Of forgotten lyrics.

The imagery serves
Only to protect from
The incomprehensible vastness
Of actual space, free from abstraction,
Pressing down onto you as you stare
Up into the night, compressed
By the hydraulic press of the universe
Which ensures that which is big is really
Very small.

A shatter of glitter
Breaks over her eyes
When she looks in the mirror:

Swathes of pink
Speckled by silver circles
Matched by the anxious glittering
Of the waterfall
That is her earrings.

It's her last glance
To hold the spectre
Of herself
Until she explodes
With the other girls;
Prim and dainty.

I hide in words — tucking under their shade;
Dressing letters up with sequins and baubles.
Now showering in limelit obfuscation.
Makes it seem as if I am really there:

Dressing letters up with sequins and baubles
Blinding myself in the flashing of their colours;
Makes it seem as if I am really there
Amidst flowered touchless abstraction.

I blind myself in the flashing of their colours.
Submerged in repetition, my thumb drowns
Amidst flowered touchless abstraction,
Swirling in whirlpool ******* me underneath:

Submerged in repetition, my thumb drowns
Now showering in limelit obfuscation,
Swirling in whirlpool ******* me underneath.
I hide in words — tucking under their shade.

Cover your mouth and eyes and ears
As herald's hark bares blighted revelation —
Swell in ignorance as everything disappears

Into hazed spiderweb, strung in hate and fears
Swept in phosphate — threaded by persuasion
That covers your mouth and eyes and ears

As the blood-red diamond thread rears
F35 fighter jets and AI-****** recognition.
Swell in ignorance as everything disappears

Under the tutelage of ministers' affairs;
Brushing noses — profiteered annihilation
Of others' mouths and eyes and ears;

Still silent oil blots Polaris' shine, like tears
Pooling screens flashing nation's damnation.
Swell in ignorance as everything disappears.

Droves dead under rubble; law fails to adhere
For those that sanction genocide's continuation
And cover their mouth and eyes and ears.
Swell in ignorance as everything disappears.