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Jan 2014 · 1.4k
A Pallette of Sunrise
A Palette of Sunrise

Bronze spears waltz with pure aubergine
amid cauliflower cumulus –
gold touch-paper.

Sugar sprinkled wash with
candy pink bubble-burst
stains church spire and oak.

Saturated in spongy tangerine
night-shapes meld into broken egg yolk
coffee spills through fields.

Foggy wool tufts
grasp mushy-pea hillocks,
sweat drops from tired shoots.

If I was a mender of souls
I would prescribe
five minutes, twice a day.
Nov 2013 · 704
You'll make it worse
‘You’ll make it worse’

she said.  But now her eyes
were fixed to Matt Damon’s ****,
hands full of Malteser mess.

My chubby digits do my walking
a finger-tip rub round the rim
takes the itch away.

I must have got bitten round her mate
Skanky Tina’s.  More hoover – less cat.
X     STA    CY

Now I’ve caught the edge.
pull back the scab and
in the popcorn bag.

Blood.  Oh my God, blood.
It starts to well, then trickle
down my leg toward the sofa.

If   I   can     balance      right
kitchen towel   just    too     far
wait, the pizza plate.  Perfect.

Tissue soaked in tomato grease
fits the bill just right.
‘What the Hell are you up to?’
Nov 2013 · 1.3k
The Mrs
I lie and listen to her breathing
like the whisper of seduction.

The murmur of a promise
the sigh of a summer breeze.

The scrape of the chair
the roar of an engine.

The sand in my trainer
water gurgling through the pipes.

The turn of the wheel.
The meaning of my words.

Back to tranquillity
and she is once more

the wine in my glass
the cork in my bottle.

Marks to my Spencer
my chip ‘n’ pin.

The stone in my cherry
the warm breathe of the oven door.

Candyfloss at the fair
Blood in my veins.
Nov 2013 · 740
Death of a Fly
Lying just under syrup-film surface
St Vitus’ dance, pushing against ductile bonds
back-flips and breaststroke.

I, with my rolled up Mirror, swatted
surprised eyes followed the arc and    plop!
That lemonade is useless now.

What did it think as it drew its last?
Enjoy the tang?  Panic?
Does it realise?

Will it feel the bubbles push past?
It could grab one, **** the air.
I might dip my finger, crush or flick.

Gran and Granddad chatter drowned,
roast lamb, pipe and sunshine.
I twist the glass to get a better view.

The twitch slower, body fizz-jiving
will it sink to the lemonade-bed,
limp and cheerless?


I could stop this, the thought pushed aside by fascination.
Minutes tick past, chimes cut with miscounted accuracy.
I realise the last witness feels sad.
My ear, still wet and ringing from beer-breath secrets
where I leaned to hear the tin-can submarine story -
then had to leave.  The constant tick inside my head

louder and louder since our call,
me: somewhere in the South Atlantic
you: in Milton Keynes.

Inside the black wells between the orange hiss
of sodium lights
my firework nerves crackle -

the splutter of a coffee machine
hides the arrival of the 10:43.
The scent of your lips deafen me.

Wind slices the platform like the shrill pain
of The Surgeon when he hacked at my toe-nail.
(It was one of those nights.)

Two express trains pass and we are caught in a vortex
of crisp packets and *** butts.
A tissue hat, green and damaged, floats onto the track.
Nov 2013 · 647
Lost Opportunity
Coffee mists the window as leaves dance,
blown by autumnal gusts;  summer is gone.
Your presence is in memories,
and life goes on regardless.
I yearn for the soft embrace
of a mother’s love.

You could not love,
not once in our twisted dance.
I am left with the harshest embrace,
the chance to redeem  gone.
I am a man regardless,
surrounded by my own constant memories.

I hide behind memories,
turn them into excuses against love.
My liberator slices through regardless
of my erratic dance.
Lessons learned are gone,
captured in love’s embrace.

I turn to a child’s embrace,
the birth of new memories.
All thought of you is gone
pushed out by innocent love,
learning a new dance
irrelevant of a past regardless.


I am in your shoes, your influence regardless.
A responsibility to embrace,
side stepping your dance
learning from my memories.
Bad lessons of love
Now gone.

The pain of passing has now gone,
despite all, I mourned regardless.
There should be a hole of missing love,
a divide I would happily embrace.
It should be filled with memories
of a family’s dance.

I am sorry for your loveless embrace.
Bitterness is gone, I am content regardless,
my memories lead me through this dance.
Nov 2013 · 2.1k
Late
For two weeks, waiting.  Pacing.
Twitching with every ring,
the call home.

You are turning,
finding your way out.
The hospital.

Waiting.  Groans of pain. Impatience.
More striding across the room, nails bitten.
You arrive.

The midwife holds your unwrapped body, you are awake,
turning this way and that to see the world.
Our eyes meet.

You are in Mum’s arms.  Head turns.
You stare into my soul, flick the switch.
I am born.
Nov 2013 · 684
Hide and Seek
Hey, there you are.  I found you.
All along hiding in my backyard.

Up and down the High Street
amid the dense foliage
of Friday shoppers I chased.

You weren’t there.

A glimpse slapping at the ribs
of a broken home.
Hope.
Again you shrank
Until, dejected, I returned.

And here you are
emerald through the cup of tea steam.
Who knew?
Nov 2013 · 1.4k
Dandelion
Drum and bass - the engine revs,
Tyres grind and squelch into the hardpan.
The cab rises with a squall of angry breath,
Lurches forward with a shudder.

Wrought iron gates heaved shut
Hinges squeal like a pig, they are a pig.
Slamming metal resonates
In secure embrace.

Ugly black rubber stains the concrete -
Mascara on a cheap *****.
If the rumbling cages are food for the beast
Then I am stood in its bowels.

The sour smell of rotting food
Mixed with washing powder and bleach pollute.
Greasy plastic, rancid fat
Makes me recoil and retch.

In a gap in the tar she grows.
Raising her head to the sun in oblivious defiance
Nov 2013 · 828
Click
Time

Click
Shutter spirals to pin-*****
Framing negative past
On mind’s surface.

Flick
Light bulb  knowledge
Brands white hot incandescence
Into an otherwise black hole.

Tick
The gradual minute hand
Zooms by with a stutter
Of an eyelid.
Nov 2013 · 702
Chew
Her fingers select a fire red fruit,
pausing to consume its perfume
before tantalising its blushing skin with pearl white teeth.

He stabs the flesh, attacking sinew and muscle,
Tearing a slab away
Shoving it into his cavernous hole.

Her lips set, mouth barely moving,
Tasting every flavour as she chews,
Delighting in the vibrant melody.

His teeth grind and crunch,
Flashing between greasy lips
In a snarl of carnivorous ecstasy.
Nov 2013 · 1.6k
Blue Wooly Hat
It sits expectantly on the peg in the dim hallway
just above the miniature blackberry stained walking cane,
waiting to be pulled over that wonderful head
reigning-in errant silver, bushy brows framed.

In the pub in a cloud of smoke,
a pint of beer next to half a Guinness,
just up the road from a market stall
where it waited
A million Christmases ago.

Hide and seek,
bobbing along the top of the untrimmed hedge.
Coming or going – no difference
happiness wherever it goes.

Straining against the South Westerly
soaked in ocean rain
longs for the shoulder-carry from the beach and silly songs
sweat pouring, Friday fish and chips, tea in the ***
Radio 4, crosswords and roasts.
Nov 2013 · 837
Adopted
Beer Boys at The Cross Keys
money crams the table – chalk names filled to closing
so we moved next door

to The Jolly Trooper
where a crowd of old boys drank whisky and talked clod
over pickled eggs and ham

we thought the chatter would stop
but a worked hand ****** a glass deep into my palm
‘ere, aveadropuvthisun

amber smelling liquid
raised my lips in sour expectation
gone

fire from the hearth
autumn plums and American oak-soaked grape
sculpture a smile

it’s good       **** good
a clap on the back and a glug in my glass
Nov 2013 · 848
Adopted
Beer Boys at The Cross Keys
money crams the table – chalk names filled to closing
so we moved next door

to The Jolly Trooper
where a crowd of old boys drank whisky and talked clod
over pickled eggs and ham

we thought the chatter would stop
but a worked hand ****** a glass deep into my palm
‘ere, aveadropuvthisun

amber smelling liquid
raised my lips in sour expectation
gone

fire from the hearth
autumn plums and American oak-soaked grape
sculpture a smile

it’s good       **** good
a clap on the back and a glug in my glass
Nov 2013 · 819
Adopted
Beer Boys at The Cross Keys
money crams the table – chalk names filled to closing
so we moved next door

to The Jolly Trooper
where a crowd of old boys drank whisky and talked clod
over pickled eggs and ham

we thought the chatter would stop
but a worked hand ****** a glass deep into my palm
‘ere, aveadropuvthisun

amber smelling liquid
raised my lips in sour expectation
gone

fire from the hearth
autumn plums and American oak-soaked grape
sculpture a smile

it’s good       **** good
a clap on the back and a glug in my glass
Nov 2013 · 989
A Marital Sonnet
A Marital Sonnet
‘Why don’t we go to the Isle of Wight?’
she said, one morning over breakfast.
‘Just travel down and stay the night.’
she said and I looked down, embarrassed.

‘But it’s full of ****** Cockneys’ I said,
‘All selling whelks, jellied eels and mash.’
She crossed the kitchen and kissed my head
and said ‘At times you talk such trash.’

‘But if it rains it’ll be a waste of time.
I doubt there is very much to do.’
She smiled and put her hand in mine
‘It’ll be a weekend just for two.’

Later, we went to the Isle of Wight
and surprisingly, it was actually all right.
Nov 2013 · 803
Saturday Boy
Saturday Boy

Pound of Cumberland, Mrs Finn?
Hand grab sausage swirl - in the bag.
**** for Mrs Peters, fillet for Mr Snyde.
Money in, meat out.

Out of sight saw-grind
cleaver-chop through bone.
Thick-set carcass/Gaffer neck
tea and toast and tea.

Meat fridge full of flesh
sky hanging dry on hooks
bags of liver and lights
pig head, sheep foot.

Open to Closed on the door
chain-link mesh pulled back
blocks scoured with wire-tipped brush
–  scrub don’t tickle.

Gaffer writes tomorrow’s boards
saw, cleaver and blade soaked
floor swept and mopped
blood and bleach.
Saturday Afternoon at the Smithy



Heart-pumped heat wall -
bellow-breathed cherry tip


Tink-tung               Tink-tung
spring-hammered hop-head rhythm
bingo-winged ripple, suet and mouth.


Square peg – round hole?  No problem.
Hot iron wrought with box-jaw tong tease.
Tight fit.  Good. Sweat-drop-splatter.
Wire teeth scrape garnet rifts,


Pig scratch back into scraped coke -
metal to plasticine.
White fizzy sparks fly and hiss


Phlopp – thirsty water stings.
Ferrous blood taste – time for tea.
Nov 2013 · 536
Night Hunt
Night Hunt

Artemis’s light shines full
silver coating the shadows
populating the space by the wood
where I wait, knowing.
The stars, tiny punctures
in the ink black eternity
announce your arrival.

The first splash of rain
hits my trembling cheek
I know that the time is near
when invisible I can move
stalking soundless through the grass.

Watching, ever watching
inching forward low and taut
close enough to breathe the same air
the prey liminal through death.
Nov 2013 · 1.1k
The Shed
The Shed

Waiting for afternoon
when I visit, tea in one hand
crossword in the other.

Rows of last year’s seeds parade on the shelf
by the window, cobwebs high and tight.
Mulchy  tobacco odours mingle in mooted sunbeams.
Garden tools hung neatly on nails, the workbench clear
save for the jars of nuts and screws and old mug rings.

Exiled carpet, stiff with fatigue,
plant pots are the only pattern left,
the wooden stool  moulded with old-age-grooves
and joints that grumble,
stands next to bottled rhubarb and elderberry
dusty and vibrant,  drinking in summers past.
Nov 2013 · 1.2k
Taxi Ride
Taxi Ride

‘Hop on.’ says The Fez
‘There’s no stairs.’ Sleepy eyed dry mouth.
‘Tug the tassel and swing.’
I tugged the tassel and swung and Whoosh!
Stars distant below,
velvet and silk far behind
ochre stretches indigo
on the jasmine zephyr.
Ancient tombs **** past,
dry walled cities hidden in dust.

Will I see my dinner?

The sun hisses, the moon stretches
spilling onto the onyx sea.
‘Where to?’ Fez says
‘It’s your ride’ I shrug.
‘Maybe an ex, or your boss.’
‘Nah, that would be a waste.’
‘How about the Jungle or The World’s Roof?’
Restless I turn and say
‘Just home will do’
Nov 2013 · 801
Fishing with Fergie
Fishing with Fergie

Stomping through sodden brown fields
rods bounce in tune to our march.

Maggots dance in Tupperwared silence
till we crouch out the wind.

Salmon.  Majestic, leaping salmon.
Surging to spawn in embryonic memories.

Enticed by streamers and nymphs, Griffiths Gnats and Woolly Buggers,
battle Trylene Big Game Mono, lean silky body trembling, taut.

One day, we agree, one day.
For now we watch the luminous tip of the Bodied Waggler,

feeling for strain as the maggot twists and stretches
Pierced by the bait-cast, come and get it.

Tench or bream, (but not pike, please no pike).
Bite, come on, bite.       BITE.       I know you’re there in the murk.

Tea, passed steaming hot with a plastic taste.
Earthy fingered sandwiches.  Our eyes never move.


Was that a tug?  Yes? YES!
Pull hard!  Reel in,     quick.

Snap!  
Next time, my friend.  Next time.
Nov 2013 · 831
Albatross
Blown between thermals
black tips punctuate azure.

Steady glide
empty horizons loom.

Pitiful cries
Fear her own abandonment

and white headed stallions
charge below,

their salt sweat
scorch throat, blind eyes.

An inborn junction
she turns curse free

The scent of green
Fills the levanter

— The End —