John Edward Smallshaw

John Edward Smallshaw Aug 2024

It always rains here
that's why
even when it was baking hot in London yesterday I went to work in an overcoat knowing full well that the downpour would come the moment I passed Warrington and I wasn't wrong.

If home is where the heart is and where the umbrellas are lined up like the elderly on pension day then I arrived late last night, but they don't notice things like that up North, if it doesn't have curry sauce on it or mushy peas on the side it doesn't exist,

through the mist which is actually cigarette smoke I can see today coughing its way through the early morning streets,

Ah
so good to be back in the clickety-clack of the mill town.

John Edward Smallshaw Aug 2024

When I return

I think I shall be
someone other
than me,

I shall move differently
almost reverentially
and I will
have a tic in my left eye,
a flicker to remind me
of why
I came back.

I might also have a walking cane
reminding me that I am not the same
as I was.

John Edward Smallshaw Aug 2024

Tuesday began years ago

The sky blushes pink
do I think it saw me
in the ****?

not sure about that
but now the sky
is almost cherry-red

I must remember to
close the curtains
before
I go to bed.

Aug 2024

Jimmy silker

Fur and slime(the war between hamsters and toads)

Theres a war between hamsters and toads
How it started nobody knows
But it's lasted now
Since time out of mind
And the hate simply has not declined

A border dispute?
Or more Tonton macoute?
Hamsters don't go for it subtle
While the toads they abide
And wait for stars align
And know now its time to throw down

For thousands o years
It's was nothing but tears
Though neither are capable o crying
Through relentless attrition
And murderous ambition
By the countless millions
They were dying.

But there's news from the front
Arbitration's afoot
There be disrupters
Of slime and of fur
They want peace and not war
To both kings they implore
Pointless hatred
Must be denied.

John Edward Smallshaw Aug 2024

Waiting for the men in black.

They will **** me
and they'll tell you
that it wasn't me
it was John Doe,
and
just so you know
they're fukin lying.

they off everyone
who disagrees with them
politically
and
they do it publically,
so
when you find me
on the street,
dead meat,
you'll know
that they killed me.

John Edward Smallshaw Aug 2024

Lifting the sky

Well
if I could scamper the *** out of going to work I would, Monday should be declared a National Emergency, bring in the army to defend the weekend.

I haven't scampered in years but I'm getting really good at tottering,
next, I'm going to learn how to teeter,
( Grammarly suggests wobble, but I already do that )
and
I think when I teeter it is then that I'll meet her
halfway to wherever it is.

John Edward Smallshaw Aug 2024

Thought 68

Passion,
like the fruit
if not tended
and cared for
will drop
from the tree,

we are the custodians
look after your lover.