Do the bathmat shuffle
To the closet in the hall
It's never very graceful
But try not to fall

No towels on the shelf
Must be in the dryer
Do the bathmat shuffle
But now you’ll do it slyer

Shuffle down the hall
And hope no one's about
Or shimmy like you don’t care
Shake, dance, belt out

Do the bathmat shuffle
You’re nearly almost there
Made it to the dryer
But the towels are elsewhere

Do the bathmat stumble
Your quads are feeling tight
Eureka in the living room
The end is now in sight

Do the towel toga boogie
Time to celebrate
You could put the towels away
But maybe you’ll just wait

NCL April 2019

My coffee was stolen
With half a cup left
This unfair atrocity
Has left me bereft

He wasn't at all sorry
Not a bit of regret
“It was just a few sips
No need for upset”

“Sleep with one eye open”
I tell the brazen thief
“Finders aren’t keepers
That’s a false belief”

I need my espresso
I need my caffeine
I’m a monster without it
Not a human bean

NCL April 2019

You will be told how to be less
Except they won’t say it that way
They will tell you to
Play nice
Compromise
Make space
Make sure everyone is alright
And don’t make a scene

They will tell you to be
Pretty and cute
Kind and sweet
And smart
But don't show off
Or get big ideas

They will tell you to be
Popular and likeable
But modest and prim

They will tell you to be
So many claustrophobic impossible things

They are wrong
They don’t get to decide
Who you are
Or how you are

You are allowed to exist
If the space they leave
Isn’t the right size or shape
Give yourself permission
Take what you need
Be what you need

Give yourself permission
Be strong and smart
Play rough or messy
Show off
Have big ideas
Disagree
Be extreme
Or complicated
Or any of the things
You want to be

Protect yourself
Even when it means
You have to make a scene
Yell, argue or even scream
Please don't be afraid
Or do be afraid
But do it anyway

Next time they tell you
How to be
You are allowed to
Ignore them

NCL April 2019

One foot in front of the other days
Long, slow and ponderous
Grey with clouds that rest
Heavy on my heart
And drag along behind

Into the dark hours of morning
I run
Weary and aching
Falling forward
Step after step
Street after street

Until I find
A familiar curve in the road
Surrounded by trees
I used to know
Then pain and glass
Slippery sharp
Embedded in my sole

I pull for a lifetime
Slowly guiding out
Shard after giant shard
Until I am bathed in reflected sunrise
Now I can go home

NCL April 2019

I love you, my sweet, little bug
We lazed this morning, cuddly snug
Hiding from a drizzly day
Warm and giggling as we lay
Hearting art, space and cats
Asking questions, having chats
Watching mag lev trains on screen
Learning magnetism for the keen
A picture couldn’t hold this bliss
Nor any words fully reminisce
The two of us, affectionately enspooned
Love, peace, curiousity, cocooned

NCL April 2019

Your words echo
Beautiful and violent
Deep within my everything
I ache
Wanting, needing, yearning
Words and feelings
Impossibly out of reach
Thank you

Poetry was
Something she did
When she was young
Playing with rhyme and reason
and honesty
Scribbling words and feelings
On scraps of paper
Absently scattered throughout her world

As she grew
The fragments collected
In piles, boxes, drawers
She wasn’t proud or ashamed of them,
They were nothing,
Just bits and pieces
Of a person she used to be

Poetry is
Something she never
Planned to continue
There was no point really
But when the words take over
Escaping in a raw and rushed form
Pieces of her bleeding onto pages
She can't help but let them go
Maybe someday she’ll stop

NCL April 2019

The Cat is in the box
The box is too small
She sleeps by the fire
Caring not at all

NCL April 2019

I am afraid
That when he grows up
He will be someone who can’t accept No
Someone who won’t compromise
Who will take what he wants
If he can’t win it with lies

I am afraid
That he won’t learn how to be gentle
Or when to be gentle
And when to play rough
I want him to know
When to give in
Gracefully
And when to be tough

I am afraid
Of the day he realizes
Superheroes are rare
And people in disguises
Do not always embody
The clothes that they wear

I am afraid
For him
For the things I can’t control
For the doors that close
For the opportunities
I can’t bankroll

These counted fears
And those too ugly to be declared
While they are substantial
I try to remember
Fear and Hope travel paired

NCL April 2019

You may be told to be less
Or that you are less
And should accept less
Because you don't need more
They want you to think
You don't deserve more

They are wrong

You deserve everything
You are not less
You never were

You are infinite things

Next time they tell you
How to be less
Don’t listen

NCL 2019

The Cat was sleeping on the chair
Beneath the table, that is where
She woke to find herself entrapped
She circled twice and then, unflapped,
Stretched through a tiny gap and
Like a slinky, or sleight of hand
Slow at first and then quite fleet
She descended indiscreet
Streaking off to cat-knows-where
Not two minutes passed out there
When she returned swift and steady
Jumped up, peered out, cat ninja ready

NCL 2019