moments with the old story,

knowing it will be understood.

each day a moment to be

shared out here.

it is said that chris whitty looks serious always

so on checking find

this:-

uk government chief scientific adviser

sounds pretty serious that
as does covid

not much cause for tap dancing and merriment

there

it is said there are worries over the children’s vaccine for the disease is a viral virus

yet they agreed  the mmr injection

for the measles virus
the mumps virus
rubella virus

while

poliomyelitis is viral and difficult to spell

then diphtheria is a bacteria and rhymes

well

serious

have thought a lot about your pasty while out walking in the rain


wondered on the pastry whether it were puff or flaky


or even traditional short like me


whatever the casing  it sure sounds a tasty pasty….

ragged poem because it’s not focused. the concept is lost in the wrapping.

liking rags
i move on
with differing
music

the trial by glass

well indeed, what a pretty picture except maybe the trilby hat.


i imagine them to be blue and green you know.


we went into town yesterday and wanted cake.

quite a kerfuffle at the hotel as i asked for the menu  to look at cake so we were sat in the luncheon area which of course was incorrect especially as they had no cake

not even a teabun

there is news from the village

some is good and all there is tidy.

while some comes shocking and hard

to bear

james.

fighting the predictions

down the centre of town
an avenue in fall

and the day came divine

intended on a sandwich maybe from the convenience store with the metal cafe seating outside

had noticed the chip shop and remembered that those and fish shops would be closed on mondays as no fishing on sundays then

now we are overfishing, killing those that live at sea

then see

it was open

chose small chips with salt and vinegar to taste while he enquired if i was on holiday

brightened up when i mentioned the bus from dolgellau

i had cash for him as required hidden from myself in the unaccustomed bag

sat carefully on a town bench and ate all the tiny crunchy bits and crumbs of fried batter from the edge indispersed with fatter juicy ones which sagged and dripped goo nicely

fortunately found a fairly clean cotton handkerchief in my jacket pocket for wiping face and fingers

could not eat them all

despite the small

portion and wrapped back up for later

my jacket is green with three quarter sleeves and have had it a while now

it was after that i found the marked robber’s grave in the church yard

when i was a kid we had a neighbour, mrs hargreaves who had a phone and a visiting dog. jip.

not many had phones then and we would go across the main road to the call box

or use hers in an emergency only

any way the dog was homely looking

with no fashions then in breed except perhaps the pekingnese

wandering the backstreets of this small town came to the football pitch by the allotments

getting on to lunch time it was

spoke to a lady with her dog a corgi/jack russell cross and talked in admiration

she thanked me and explained that he liked a walk before they went to bed and i wondered

then made my way back into town

where a cat was sitting in the road

student of timetables

me

now with a free pass to most places

the official times

saved to my phone and noted on paper in my back pocket , nearly lost in the chip shop that only accepts cash

it fell yet we saw it and retrieved

1.28 pm the bus home so we gets there real early and waits

by the walker

he had trecked from forden the three miles up and down

used to the flatness of portsmouth wanted a ride back yet nothing forthcoming limped his return

1.50 pm with no bus arrived the timetable lady was contacted and she explained the bus was due at 2.30 pm that my internet were wrong and no one was bothered what it said at bus stops

on her say so

nipped round to the toilets then waited patiently to 2.30 when a bus arrived going the wrong way

spoke to the timetable lady who admitted being wrong that the 1.30 came in late possibly while i was in the toilets

the next correct and last bus now 3.30 pm

i wondered what to do if that one did not arrive and secured an unnecessary plan

fortunate to afford

when safely aboard thought of those recently waiting at airports to escape

my small adventure was as nothing

sat on the town hall steps in the late september sun

thankyou for the prompt, the questions.

some times there is no answer, no words to describe.

yesterday i went alone to hold those feelings private

there was joy in the small things

chips from the shop the first for two years

ate in the sun under the particular trees

the absence of red soap and the joy of seeing the garden again, the galvanised cold frames

and wondering why only eight of her children were carved in the church recess when she bore ten

yet I tell you this

it were a lovely day with new surprises

and confirmation that I never wish to win

nothing

went to town yesterday, saw the signs of another
world. stood in the bank some time, only one
assistant these days.


the sun colours the clouds with empathy.

an avalanche of news
and wet weather
dampened the spirit


so we nipped out between the storms
to post the letters


and that was all

did you find a pin there, did you pick it up and stick it?   did you stay safe, wrap the shawl around and hold    it   close?        did you see my life breaking, bring me pins for mending? …

drawing the child with found fabrics

watching the marks come good, no dots
intended
yet they came
without warning

Keith.

Thankyou for popping by again. Good to see you here.

Yes the noise goes on all day when they strim. There are three graveyards here and there are usually two working together.

They start in the lower, town council. Then the middle, village council, then the churchyard.

I am sad to say **** killer is employed for the edges as if there is not enough death already Keith.

it is a long time since the sun shone in long and low like that, he said.   does this mean it is autumn now? it is such a pretty room.                                                                  ­                                         yellow.

fancy dance delivering groceries
down the lane by the church

where the water board left those holes

guarded nicely  with a temporary blue

fence thing

i did not order conversation yet got it anyhow
with a sermon regarding his christianity and

school assembly

i  vaguely argued points yet they were  not noticed

for he had sat  two hours that morning and every morning praying and reading stuff

maybe had not learned to listen

so brought the food delivery indoors
and asked a refund for the substitutes

did you edit your question?

did you change your mind?

shall explain
anyhow

a good artist who taught for extra
a new kitchen at the french farmhouse and other things

taught as required for copying  so we all looked the same

though some added bits and embellishments which caused remark

while the space between lines was so immense my head came heavy with drowsy

fell off

&

i did not return

life moves on.

no time to double check,
change things before

is set in time , in memory.

two times,
in two ways

we multiply.

she said that hers were special, hairdressers’ scissors. we were never to cut paper with them, yet we did.

look….

wrap the house around you, then                            leave it.   out into the only world you know.   anxiety  comes with           the unfamiliar.                                         they call down the chimney.

so i will go back.   look at the buildings. two museums hiding,.               look at the buildings,

this is a mill town.

are you afraid?

did you

wonder why some of us come private?

maybe a result of intrusion

finding letters opened or not finding them at all

until too late

that is why i am afraid

finding these memories difficult
to relate

may abstain in despair

to say it all caused great harm

really

as did your request for him to hit me for wearing old trousers

that is why i am afraid

yes it is slate
tipped over from higher up

the quarry is closed this side
subsidence

the other side it is still worked
though further than before
as there is now a visitor
attraction

for tourists
so we don’t go there
anymore

is that feeling that comes of an autumn afternoon at a particular moment just before the squirrel arrives timely

for food

that feeling that arrives with the name of the county

the memory of your home and closeted life
now eroding slowly

that sense of belonging to the land

it is that feeling

…that

they say my brother
would walk to Sherry’s
for the stales with a pillow

case to carry they say

he never ate none on
the way home and i

wonder if that is true

later years gran would
take me in the shop
to buy fresh

she favoured the cream horns.

we listen to the rain early

with mixed feelings

there may not be gardening done today

there may be drawings

my beetle, dead, not buried. i keep them, yet it fell to the floor, mysteriously lost. we try to turn disasters round, here, knowing it will be found, some time. my dear sweet sexton, the burying kind.

i learn about sub soil, all things growing,

the logistics of death.

just stand and watch the season change, note the dew and separate ideas.   remember that you stand alone. are not alone from                                                  criticism and contradiction.

beetles here turn over, legs waving, we turn them back, then, it is all repeated.    empathy kicks in for all small folk who suffer,                                                    who cry in dark corners.

yet i have mislaid  the black beetle too.

it was some time ago we lost.the sexton.

that feeling, that .

arrives unexpected from darkness, some winters’ mornings,

opening the door to the sound of one black bran bird calling.

track four repeated. that

comes on waking finding peace and comfort bound in clean
linen.

arises with perfume, an uncertain memory.

it may be chemicals, peptides in the brain as love, what
ever the germ or warfare

I find no word to describe, no random feather nor dust on
my plate. pass a finger.

that feeling of trimmed nails upon the keys pounding
words and silences.

while music plays. that feeling. that.

syrup stings my tongue.

she said she liked the stories

except I did not tell them

i never tell you much

nor all of it

there are bits left to fill in

yourselves

make some thing of the scratches and nibs,

home in on detail

and begin

to enjoy

the cuts and scrapings.

days come darker still

considering the night

white they peer

sadly into empathy

faces cloud

shoulders bowed

nige.

you showed me your first car with the glove compartment

i
sat and thought about my situation

felt I could live in a car

decades later
learned that you did

think the road is closed for people on bicycles

with a helicopter flying over

this morning while doing the garden in the heat got sweaty and allergic

sneezing with spotty rashes

i ate tinned gooseberries from the fridge in the cool corner of the cottage

and felt better

out walking got to thinking

on a conversation with the neurodiverse child who considers me odd

walked a fair few miles today

in old money

keith

moving on

things are now more ornate

in a rustic mode

me cutting thin slithers

so next i shall make wooden wheels

for something

we do so many things.

we are no longer afraid.

make the best of summer days,

winter follows.

we here hope things there

are more settled than yesterday

yesterday in trying to say the right things

whilst also saying things

wished

possibly uttered the wrong things

wishing you well while realising that it is not at all well

yesterdays reply came on the hill
and emotion took over
i blamed the wind
when i wiped my eyes
dry

there is a need to say the the house is on fire again

metaphorically

and that theirs is on fire more

metaphorically

while it seems that no one is listening nor uploading stuff to social media

here

nor there

hairgrips

at asda are two pounds fifty pence

those from morrisons are one pound

all delivered

ordered the blonde ones though

wanted grey….

was mentioned that people turn it back to themselves

tried it and found it so

that or not showing care
for the deep ness of it all

maybe i shall not go to dunster again

after all

and shall miss it

&

more

will miss you…..

.note. i never did pronounce dulverton as dulverton…

perseverance came lovely even the last seven minutes

beautiful like ballet landing softly

stood there at the big house with the designer dog
each other and grandchild

add their two cars,  mobile home
sheds for bikes, scooter, kayak and other paraphernalia and vast corporate gardens

returned from the holiday abroad
asked if they enjoyed it

moaned vehemently on the price
of their covid tests

ffs

was scared of the lions and other
creatures

not the elephants nor the clowns
james

i loved them both
and still do

another way of being

a different way to go


sometimes our house is on fire

yet we think there is reversing in the lane

turn to find the pepperoni has burned

yet nothing is damaged

really


the goods are delivered

and the bird is safe

an icicle from your nose
drip down your pyjamas
traditional with stripes

peter, i could not make things like that either and admire those that can.

it is good to mend and keep things nice

such an achievement

each day, each day the suns shines
and we stay at home

should like a big wooden fence
for to hide behind

away from the hedge police and others

mine is metal
the broken bits with wire

and hate sanding with a vengeance.

did you make it?

drew quietly
my thing


while she also
at her house
drew pastel clouds


i sent photographs
for inspiration yet
continued to draw