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

The black pick-up trundles by.
Every late evening the same
trek along these quiet roads
is hated by an unseen driver.

On the back a bottled reservoir
of milk ebbs and flows like ice
on some red planet faraway.
Tonight the telegraphed heat

of coming day means he trickles.
Then all along moonless lanes
he rattles home empty, longing
for rain and the lure of firesides.


Tony Noon

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 often take the long road home.
It allows me to take a deep dive
of events and find my place in
the trajectory of working hours.

You can do this sort of thing with
quantitative matters. Interactions
between a) and b) will always have
a measurable effect on levels of c)

I have tried to superimpose this idea
on qualitative issues without success.
Even on the longest route there is not
enough road to draw firm conclusions.


Tony Noon

The taxis bring them home quietly,
chasing the last daylight towards
the ring road as if it had no business
hanging around here after ten o’clock.

They have caroused safely in the sun
all day, in theme park public houses
where the music is never too loud
and the drinks are always temperate.

In boarded and bewildered hostelries
as the moon rises there is still a clinking
of glass and after midnight, I am told,
discarnate laughter raises spirits till dawn.


Tony Noon

We chose this discrete island.
Not cast away as rumoured.
It was space to think things
through that was needed.
In time we found ourselves,
found new skills and learnt
to play with fire and with smoke.

Those first signals, reciprocated
from the far horizon did it.
Like minds entwined above
uncaring water. We wanted more.
We wanted high towers so that
we could see ourselves across
the empty oceans, but towers fall

and dust blows out the flame.

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

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

Somewhere in the middle
of this dog-eared spy story
I am back here between
beggars and buskers with
the world passing us by.

Above our heads the hopes
of all the ages shield us
splendidly and in your eye
a tear remembers hands
which shaped us both.


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

Baptised by early rain
they face up to light.
Upright as old pianos,
kettles boil all day long
while white nets gleam.

One day finer minds
might correlate them
with defunct chapels;
might seek out the lost
people and ask aloud

if the risen sun had
called them to glory.


Tony Noon

Batman has a market stall.
His histories and alter-egos,
shuffled and set out in brown
boxes pressed out of pulp.

Priced up according to age
and condition, there is rarely
a day when he doesn’t reflect
upon his fortune. Not one day

when he does not wonder who he was.


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

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

I could buy milk at any hour
but choose to wait until the sun
is at least hiding behind clouds.

In a world which wants it now,
a little sanctity for the small hours
does not seem to go astray.


Tony Noon

There is another hole in the old town.

When it rains it will hold water like cold
craters on the moon.Devoid of life now,
each drop will hold the history of years.
Every drop will reflect on scrubbed steps
and drunken Fridays and days off in bed.  

The wind will whistle hit parades over mud.
Grass will pretend it was always here and
cold kids on new bikes never turned out at
Christmas or in new clothes come Whitsun.
Plaques will not record the living or the dead.

There is another hole in the old town.
Shaped like a worn shoe. Hard to fill.


Tony Noon