An age-fog hangs in heavy drapes
Around my head, a thickening gauze,
And memory of your love escapes
This numbing mist that's sealed my doors.

My straggling wispy hair you stroke,
While whispering of a life-long love;
Your shafts of sunlight **** and poke
But cannot pierce the cloud above

For staring at this window I
Avert my gaze, your touch resist.
My memory dulled, with glassy eye
And drooling mouth,I face the mist.

The pulse of our home,
Your floor-thumping tail, now beats
Your funeral drum.

© Marcus Lane 2010

Deep-rooted through time
This Norman arch,
Oak-like
Stands firm.

Over-arching
Buttresses and beams
Once wove wefts of
Warm reassurance.

Beneath oppressive clouds
Now a weary spire
Lifts a lone limp finger
Paying lip-service
To a memory.

Soiled latex
Sharp steel
Crushed aluminum
The offerings of straying pilgrims.

Illuminated lettering
The artful work of
New scribes:

God wos ere
lol


© Marcus Lane 2009

A proud man,
Upright and unshakable
In belief and morals,
Once only I did I see him
Without a tie.

A child of Edwardian England,
The links Of his watch chain
Glinted
As they hung
With formality and elegance
From his waistcoat pocket,
Yes, even as he worked.

And work he did.
Patiently,
Brilliantly and tirelessly
With ingenuity and imagination.
A craftsman from a bygone age.
A master of his tools.

Grandfathers are soft,
Playful, bear-like in their
Gruff-whiskered familiarity.

Not Poppy.
Unwittingly aloof from his grandchildren,
We avoided the need for directly addressing him,
Unsure of where we stood.
He’d probably have secretly
Loved the informality
Of our secret nickname.
I hope he knew.

The chapel piano did for him.
Too much weight for his work-weary ticker.

Grandma gave me his pocket watch to keep,
And for a time I treasured it,
Measuring its weight
Like a smooth round pebble
In my palm.
A workman’s watch;
Practical.
A yellowing face
Behind a scratched
And hazy glass.
But accurate,
And precise.
Reliable as the man.

Detached in life,
I liked to hope that
Gazing down,
Watching,
He just might have
Laughed
In loving acknowledgement of his
Grandson’s curiosity
And foolishness
Sitting cross-legged on the carpet,
With heart-thumping nausea

Adrift in a sea of springs.

Tinsel tears glinting
In bloodshot baubles' pupils.
Goodwill came and went.

© Marcus Lane 2010

It's hard to see the point in it!
(Perhaps it's me)

A dismal afternoon of rain,
A flask of tea.

Beside this murky river now
They sit and wait,

So statuesque and silent
Clutching tins of bait.

All week in offices they sweat
With just one wish -

For Saturday come along
So they can fish.

And now beneath the willows' fringe
They bait their hooks,

Comparing rods and reels and lines
With envious looks.

The lines that fly from whizzing reels
Fall with a plip

And drift upon the surface
Where they bob and dip.

Till, with a ****, a wriggling jewel
Is winched ashore

To have its ****** brains bashed out
Upon the floor.

A sleeping beast beneath a placid lake
Has risen, trailing venom in his wake.
Young innocents on whom he fell now cower
In tearful terror of his unleashed power.
His lashing tongue has spat forth flame, his grin
Has gouged deep lifelong scars beneath their skin.

His wounding done, he drags his loathsome bulk
Beneath the swirling waters, there to sulk.


© Marcus Lane 2009