Crocodile cracks
pave the way for
frightened, bewildered bears who
ought to beware
and take care
not to get caught
or killed
by a rabid
assortment of
slathering ravenous
kids.

A confession of crows
crowd and clamor around
a jackdaw preacher

Act now! There may not
Be a next time
To give someone
Your heart
For tomorrow is
An endless day
That never seems
To start

Act now! There may not
Be a next time
To give someone
Your heart
For tomorrow is
An endless day
That never seems
To start

Sky sighs across Earth
Sunlight stretches across Sky
Afternoon unwinds

Delinquent lips
That delineate a
Loose and sinful smile.
Eyes disguised behind
Barred black lashes
That rise, and reach
Like fingertips,
To catch you, and trap you
Without a trial

It’s the snarl inside me –
The vicious gnashing and clashing of
smashed teeth,
Of swollen tongue and bleeding gums.

It’s the bite-mark-shaped-heart –
The gnawed thighs and gouged and greedy eyes,
The crushed howls and unheeded cries of
my bullet-spotted, leopard-dotted lungs.

I’m a savage, splattered mess;
Dripping indecency from the heart of me,
Letting letters pore recklessly from
every sore and red-raw pore.

I’m the ravenous maw of madness;
Drooling long strings of sentences
that pool relentlessly
down the endless feed of the cyberverse,
Then disappear into obscurity
to be lost forevermore.

I’m the untamed beast
that’s been released
from the leash of other people’s shame –
Now I’ll feast upon my foolishness
‘Til I get caught again.

With you I became
Like a phoenix with clipped wings –
Caged in her flames;
But now I fly free,
Broke away from your chains
that were controlling me,
So I never need be
afraid, for there’s no way
You will trap me again.

Are we all just broken mirrors?
Merely a collection of reflections,
A thousand shards like shields
under which we hide, and therefore deny,
These scars we cannot heal?

What do these surfaces show us?
A covering of caricatures as
a substitute for skin?
A means to deflect, so none may detect
The person lost within?

How do we perceive each other;
As people? Or as purely pixels now –
A series of small screens,
An infinity of identities
in which our souls cannot be seen?

Are we all just broken mirrors?
Too distorted to support the burden
of the shared shame we feel?
What if we take the time to realign
Our falsified ideals?

Are we all just broken mirrors?
Merely a collection of reflections,
A thousand shards like shields
under which we hide, and therefore deny,
These scars we cannot heal?

What do these surfaces show us?
A covering of caricatures as
a substitute for skin?
A means to deflect, so none may detect
The person lost within?

How do we perceive each other;
As people? Or as purely pixels now –
A series of small screens,
An infinity of identities
in which our souls cannot be seen?

Are we all just broken mirrors?
Too distorted to support the burden
of the shared shame we feel?
What if we take the time to realign
Our falsified ideals?

Sometimes all we need
Is for us to believe
We each have the right
To keep breathing

No tactics
No manoeuvres
No turncoats
No back-stabbing
No power struggles
No 'friendly fire'
No deserters
No traitors...

No problem.

Let your fingertips trip
lickety-split quick
across my skin;
Let your lips slip twixt my hips
to skim, then grip
in a bliss of slow-burning kisses
the red-budding rose hip
that grows in deliciousness
with each single, tingling tease
from your tongue;
Let your lips sip its sweetness
as their soft touch releases these
first fleeting treats of my love,
That leave merely a trace and
an enticing taste of
the salacious feast that’s to come.

A scribble
Is a doodle
In a hurry,
And to potter
In a panic
Is to scurry.

A sunny summer’s day again;
When endless serenity fills the sky,
stills the Earth and
instills my mind with
a kind of listless energy
that exists somewhere
between bliss and lethargy.

I feel as though I can do anything;
Yet I know there are still so many things
I must get through
that I’ve no time to lose
and should therefore choose
which one I should do.

So I tried to decide –
but I got so confused that I had to deduce
there was simply no use
in letting myself get stressed out;

That the best thing to do
was to let the mess rest –
ignore all the chores and just
cure my sore and aching head
by taking a pew at my desk
(and taking my cue from this mess)
to write quite a tight poem instead
about how I’m lightly but still delightfully distressed
by this mess in my head.

Why do we feel the need
to treat the people we meet
as if their sole role
is to be our personal
soundboards, and nothing more?
As though they are just a surface
on which we may explore
those thoughts that gnaw away inside us
becoming oblivious
to other people’s torment,
Until we all but ignore them –
even when they’re standing there before us
pretending all is normal
when all they want is to find
someone who has the self-awareness
just to be be there
and take the time
to care…

Beneath a summer moon
In a sky of faded blue,
A murmuration of starlings
Swell and swirl,
And sigh and swoop.

A thousand flitting shapes
That sweep across the seamless space
In swathes like nimble little needles,
Trying to weave
A tapestry
With threads of spun splendor and grace.

Speckled sea-green leaves
wave wistfully in the breeze;
Summer ebbs and flows

My scarred and scratched skeleton,
With bite marks on my bones
Where inspiration took hold
As it shook me to my soul, and
Turned my marrow midnight blue.

Evening's light lies languorously
Across the land,
Waiting for
The quietly encroaching night
To bestow her
With beauty.

I need to bleed words,
I must ensure
they pour out of me
in a flood
of ****** poetry.

I must find a way to feel
these scars
I keep concealed
inside my mind,
Before they find a way to burst
out from behind
my shield and define
in long red lines
This secret pain I must
keep locked away
inside.

You gave me my bones.
Sealed me inside my skeleton skin,
Encased my heart in cartilage,
So no one could get in.

But now you can’t get in.
So you scratch and claw and needle and gnaw,
Wheedle and worry til your teeth are red raw,
You do your worst, as you did before –
Only this time, you won’t win.

Breathe in the trees –
Breathe in the breath they leave behind
in their whispering leaves,
like a reminder just why we
need them so;
for we should know
it is from them that we receive
the oxygen we need to breathe.

So we should preserve them,
because they deserve to be
alive, as they provide
the air that all life shares
and all life needs to breathe.

Building Lego with my boy
Lost in our constructions,
Brave new worlds borne from tiny toys
Who says you need instructions?

It is strange to restrain
The child within
Whilst trying to trap it
In the cells of your skin.

If perpetual youth
Is truly your goal
Let your inner child flourish
In the bounds of your soul.

Time races onward unseeing, unseen,
Leaving traces of the places its presence has been,
Capturing moments that once roamed free,
Hoarding them in cages called memories.

So we race behind it, to find where it leads,
Run through the current its movement leaves,
Pushing our lives forward, one breath at a time,
We wonder what waits at the finishing line.

Gentle steps that pad up the stairs;
Thoughtfully soft and
hushed by the hands
of midnight,
So none might
hear him advance.
But he moves with such care
That no one
but you
Would know that he’s there.

He’s on the landing now,
Creeping closer to your door
But the cautious clock
is ticking him off, so he stops
before your doorway and drops
his big bag of darkness
(that’s squirming and restless
to swallow you whole);
Then he inhales the soul
of the tick and the tock.

Now there’s nothing left
But your heart and his breath
so you know this time it is true:
That the bogeyman is in
your room
your dreams
your head
your bed
For tonight, he’s coming
for you.

Empty, insensate space.
Inside my mind, the
Dormant mental matter lies,
Waiting to be awakened.

And then...

A pin-point poem appears
And all consciousness coalesces around
A single idea.

A bright, blinding light -
As omnipotent inspiration
Jump-starts the silence with
A big bang of imagination,
Throwing free-flowing thoughts outwards
In a chaotic burst of characters
As the emptiness explodes into
A universe of words.

You bide your time
To hide your crimes;

Never strike in
Broad daylight and

Always attack
At the back, so

None will realize the length
Of your lies, for
Even you can’t
See through them…

But I do.

Daydreaming;
Streaming then sieving
through words to find
their precious meaning
whilst leaving behind
the ***** sediment of
unneeded sentiments
which do not heed
the verse.

Delightfully disproportionate features
form the basis of your face;
For your ears are neither here nor there –
they’re lost in the forest of your lustrous hair;
Whilst your eyes are disguised
by brows of deep brown,
that creep together when you frown
across the bridge that exists on the ridge of your nose,
where they greet each other with a rigid kiss
that just grows and grows and grows…

And on your cheeks your crow’s
feet lie listlessly, yet move their toes insistently
to show the world explicitly
that of course they don’t agree with
all that applesauce you speak of
with that mumbling mouth of yours, that’s
flanked by fading lips which still gaily get to grips
with a jumble of uncouth words
all hung on a whipcord tongue that can suddenly become
as soft and smooth as spun silk.

Cause you’re the only one of your ilk;
A defective manifestation
of a masterpiece of creation;
A random representation
and a precise personification.
You’re a filter-free reflection
of every furtive fault in me, drawn
with delectable imperfection –
and that’s just how you should be.

Morning stirs the trees
Dew drops dance along sunbeams
Do-si-do they go

I dodged a black hole,
Took a spin
'Round its event horizon,
Then
Regained Control.

Now I'm floating out in space,
The pull of it still lingers
But
I'm in a good place,
Safe from its embrace
And gladly giving it the finger.

Do gorgons have bad teeth?
I feel inclined to ask
Since there can't be a dentist
Brave enough to do that task...

Sometimes it’s wise
to take time out from
our busy lives
and see the world
through a child’s eyes.

So let go, and whirl
yourself around –
til you’re so dizzy
you tumble down
into a heap upon the ground;
And if you don’t feel humble,
when you’re down there, then
you’d better get back on your feet
and do it all again

It begins with a beat;
A steady reverberation in an
elemental part of me.

Then the bass line comes;
A red-raw rush of energy
viciously visceral in my veins,
Elevating my feeble frame
From it’s meek and sorry state
To become something
Ferociously sublime.

And now I’m mainlining music,
Letting it
Soak into my skin
Infect my ears
Infuse my feat and
Bombard my quivering brain
With its beat
‘Til I explode into a mass
of minuscule notes;
Quick little quavers
like quarks
that waver, then stalk
through my mind,
Looking to find
fresh melodies, to which
my soul can bind
and bleed.

This is how it feels
within me,
When my body responds
to a purified beat;
This is true ecstasy –
When I fly on an
emotional high.

It begins with a beat;
A steady reverberation in an
elemental part of me.

Then the bass line comes;
A red-raw rush of energy
viciously visceral in my veins,
Elevating my feeble frame
From it’s meek and sorry state
To become something
Ferociously sublime.

And now I’m mainlining music,
Letting it
Soak into my skin
Infect my ears
Infuse my feat and
Bombard my quivering brain
With its beat
‘Til I explode into a mass
of minuscule notes;
Quick little quavers
like quarks
that waver, then stalk
through my mind,
Looking to find
fresh melodies, to which
my soul can bind
and bleed.

This is how it feels
within me,
When my body responds
to a purified beat;
This is true ecstasy –
When I fly on an
emotional high.

We established our empire
in a land of subsiding lies;
Buried its foundations
in a slurry of false memories.

Our temples were carved
from crumbling bricks,
And our trains ran on tracks
made of broken sticks.

Our government was run
through a democracy –
That was elected by you
and decided for me.

So we should have seen
the end coming;
We should have know
our empire was falling, but…

Instead we pretended
our empire was fine,
And policed our streets
with blind watchmen.

Limbs looped like elastic bands
When our lips explore and entwine;
Fingers coiled, clawing and clasping,
Tongues taunt, teasing and twisting,
Skin sticks to skin,
Flesh into flesh,
As our bodies blend
And our souls become
Entangled.

We breath each other in,
Our scents converging
In a rhapsody
Strong and sweet
Faint and fecund
As our tongues entice each other
In the dark.

"WHY?" she cried
With all her might,
Into the ******* hole.

"...I..." replied
Her erudite
But esoteric echo.

Every day can be
like a tsunami of troubles
we struggle
to overcome;
So let’s be brave
and ride the wave
’til the day
and our troubles
are done.

Moses supposes his toes were roses
When Moses takes doses of strong LSD
But Moses he knowses to lay of them doses
'Cause Moses psychosis is pretty scary.

Let your feet take your mind for a wander,
So your eyes can get a good gander,
At sights they may not have seen,
So when you return to your screen,
Your head will be filled with insight,
And your hands will be itching to write.

A lone blackbird sings
Fine-tuning the quiet orchestra of the heavens.
The world holds its breath, and waits
For the symphony of starlight
To begin.

Fate’s pendulum swings
Back and forth throughout our lives;
Never resting, but
Always testing
us, so that we strive
To make the most of everything
That its constant whims
Provide.

Your tender words of love
have lost their lustre now;
There’s a patina on your poetry,
A corrosion in our chemistry and
all those brilliant ballads you wrote for me
are slowly turning to rust…

Now I see those little motes of misery –
your thoughtless touch disturbed in me –
All fall away quite peacefully
into a sea of fool’s gold dust.

Tiny beads of sweat
That trickle and tickle
like fingertips
Down the prim, transparent skin of
the pristine windowpane,
Leaving
leisurely trails of pleasure
and condensation’s kisses
Caught
in a sea that is submissive
As gentle summer rain.

The golden shallows
Of my conscious thoughts
Soothe the broiling depths
Of my fathomless fears.

Corners drawn and
Dimples ready;
Her super-sharp-shooter mouth motionless,
Slick scarlet silencer
Stops a chamber
Loaded with desire.

She winks her eye
***** the trigger;
In her hands a semi... automatic -
She knows I'm ready as
She parts her lips, then
Lets the bullets fly.