Forget the book and candle.
The creaking comes with age.
You know those rattling panes
are taunted by branches left
uncut by you in lazy summer.

Do not lock the door and run.
Ghosts are particular. Always
with us, they thrive in three-ply
boxes, and in packed suitcases.
When you are ready, they are too.


Tony Noon

I heard three but there were more
languages in play, some silently running
through their viewpoints of a day so far.

Where we came from was uncertain.
Clouds of intent ,we had drifted from
indifferent mornings to find ourselves

funnelled for a few minutes into this
shared space. Going forward, diversity
meant nothing.For different reasons

we all needed the same destination.


Tony Noon

Between the doorway
and fireworks a year
is changing and all our
conceits, all our deceits,
are falling back to earth.

Melting in parallel they
are unjudged ,offering
no clues going forward.
Broadcast like seed on
hardened ground, they

are a coarse blueprint
of a place we thought
we knew, a place we
liked to call our home.
Remnants of fireworks

know nothing of stars.


Tony Noon

It was always about the night.
Always about our attempts to
dominate enveloping darkness.

We pushed it back. Cave mouths
belched fire to warn those legions,
while candles carried us outside.

It was not rocket science which led
us from the dull realm of Morpheus,
but our increasing mastery of light.

We danced at all hours under lasers,
while neon tried to win our favours,
but unforgiving darkness is forever

alert to the smallest crack in resolve.
We are upstarts. Any hint of deference
will draw the wind towards the candle.


Tony Noon

I am laying here thinking about the way coffee
forces it’s way through thick stone
into thin morning air,waiting for the early risers.

I am drawn back to a world of steam and grey
commuters,where warmth surrounds us,
clouding cold hearts and dreamless mornings.

There are days and weeks and months and years
like this,but many more which are not.
Hard to say if we are punctured or just punctuated.

Laying here thinking about coffee and steam never
solved anything. Coffee is a brief fix and steam fades,
but every full stop is one more chance to start again.


Tony Noon

The history of the ghost train
is the hot hell of the foundry,
white metal seeding moulds.

The cold hammering of rivets
and rails work hardening
all the long days back to steam.

Most of all it is the people.
Unseen now they broke backs
for it and are now gone.


Tony Noon

What did you expect ? The bolts were here,
and nuts in this battered box. Books too
and some old tunes in obsolete formats.

The shoes that were supplied, were scuffed
and oversize but you had no idea, did you ?
You threw them away before you figured

that flesh did not come with the package.
You were left with a soulless, blinking thing
unable to lead you to higher ground.

The shoes were for you to try walking first.
Then to do it again and again, day after day
until your feet learned the shape of words.


Tony Noon