"bayoneted" poems
You walked down Bath Terrace
having been to Jail Park
on the swings
and slide with Janice
and she had her red beret
on the side of her head
like some French girl
I nearly bayoneted
my old man last night
you said
I had my toy rifle
he brought me
with the rubber bayonet
and I was charging out
of the sitting room
into the passage
and caught him
in the guts
as he entered the room
what you doing?
he asked
I was bayoneting Germans I told him
I’m not German he said
I’m your father
and he stormed off
into the sitting room
to his favourite chair
by the fire
and I stood there thinking
it’s only a toy gun
and I was only having fun
Janice looked at you
and said
if I’d done that
to Gran she’d have spanked
my backside
but you wouldn’t
have had a rifle
with a rubber bayonet
you said
girls don’t have rifles
with bayonets
I might have done
she said
ok
you said
you can borrow mine
and see what happens
no thanks
Janice said
I know what would happen
you climbed over
the metal fence
by Banks House
and sat on the concrete remains
of the bomb shelter
looking toward the coalwarf
where coal wagons
were being loaded
with black sacks of coal
and the horses stood there
in front patiently
eating from nosebags
Janice was sitting pretty
in her red beret
her hair tied
in a ponytail
her coat buttoned up
to the neck
talking about her gran
and the pet bird
in the cage
and you listened
to her taking in
her hands on her knees
her small fingers
not the kind
to hold a rifle
with a rubber bayonet
more the kind
to hold a baby
or rock a cradle
or stroke brow
you wanted to ask her
for a cowgirl’s kiss
but didn’t know how.
Apr 10, 2013
Apr 10, 2013 at 3:26 PM UTC
sweetly sifting first prose of winter
yonder mosey covered little feet
in snow yet simply for the future
you remark of freckled slates of white
we've bayoneted fall
and oncome the beards of ice
but dally, dally all you like my dear
we're shrink-wrapped in love
Nov 12, 2012
Nov 12, 2012 at 3:23 AM UTC
the entire platoon, lost
even Leroy--all said he had the “shield”
in this field, he must have let it down
all six foot four of him, on the ground
beside him, Tony from Brooklyn
Fresno Frankie, all
the lieutenant, in motionless repose
his head resting on Leroy's ribs, his short blond hair crimson
from the base of his skull to his ears, color courtesy
of Leroy’s grated gut
not one sound
why had they not bayoneted him
with the others....he saw one standing over him, leaning
down with his AK-47, moving as slowly as the minute hand
on a giant black clock
where was the sun
after all these hours among the dead
hadn't the earth turned, or did it spin into a sky
where Helios had vanished, superfluous now
on this lifeless plain
still, in this darkness he saw
one by one, his sleeping brothers awake
yet drenched in blood, arms outstretched,
mute while they drifted upwards
in ribbons of soft, silent light
Sep 20, 2015
Sep 20, 2015 at 12:19 AM UTC
Thank you, but I have vowed
to accept the fact that luck is as good
a chance to take as grace,
no exchange, no earning luck, never was.
Good luck is only good, bad luck is a mistake,
a grasping at things that did occur,
to change
at sudden, certain, central points,
miss the aim as teleos is said to be a mistake,
the act of aiming
definite purpose, ala Napoleon hill, aim to ****
train the brain to fear no death, not mine,
not the other guys,
I am the weapon,
possessed of the spirit of the bayoneted and bulleted,
points used to **** flood the ******
Flanders fields, at that time of year, first the blade,
then the ear, then fields sing thanks and bloom
***** scarlet poppies… later in the spring
Aim at nothing, the mind
of the machine
gunner reacts, point and spray, if you pray,
I say,
pray for the man who takes careful aim,
and squeezes, knowing sudden
bang
budges not the aim aimed true and followed
through.
Machine gunner, pray for me.
Feb 20, 2022
Feb 20, 2022 at 5:32 PM UTC
Innes said
want a boiled sweet
I have bag full?
Yes sure
I said.
He opened up
the bag
with his
plump fingers.
I took out
a boiled sweet
and unwrapped
the paper
and put the sweet
in my mouth.
Did your dad
ever **** anyone
in the War?
he said.
Don't know
he never said
I replied.
Mine did
he killed Krauts
either shot them
or bayoneted them
Innes said
in a satisfied tone.
He brought back knives
and gave me one
Innes added
a SS knife
he took off
a dead SS soldier
he saw
at the side
of a road.
I see
I said
rolling the sweet
around my mouth.
From the boys' playground
I could see girls
in their playground
some were skipping
or playing hopscotch
or standing talking.
Your dad met
the Queen?
He said.
No not so far
I said.
He took another sweet
from his bag
with two plump fingers
and unwrapped it
carefully then
plopped it
in his mouth.
Mine did
when he got
a special medal
at the Palace
he said.
Did you go?
I said.
No I was too young
just a baby
he replied.
Lizbeth was in
the girls' playground
I saw her red hair
over her shoulders
and remembered how
she tried to have me
in her room
that time
but I didn't.
You ever
kiss a girl?
I said.
Me? God no
he said
looking down
at his small
plump feet
going red.
Jul 7, 2017
Jul 7, 2017 at 3:58 AM UTC