"tetchy" poems
Michael said to Gabriel
"You know the Old Man's tetchy,
have you got your **** together?
Have you got your choir ready?"
Gabriel said, "Just **** out,
have you got that star in place?
I don't see it in the sky yet,
have you booked the allotted space?
"By the time the magi notice
and start their journey west
the party will be over,
so I think it would be best
if you tell Him they'll come later,
that the vibe will work far better
if we go ahead with the shepherds
and then have the kings come later."
Mickey was a little miffed,
but he knew that Gabe was right.
He'd been distracted with the detail
to ensure the star was bright.
So Mickey went and told the Boss,
"It really makes more sense,
cos once Jesus is a toddler
he'll enjoy the frankincense."
Dec 5, 2017
Dec 5, 2017 at 6:34 AM UTC
Me and Robin
rockhopping
round seaweeded,
barnacled beaches
where the river
shakes hands
with the sea
When up pops an otter.
Straight out the silver waves
it comes
and starts chattering at us
in Japanese.
I scratch my head.
Robin looks baffled.
The otter is urgently
incomprehensible.
We look around
on the offchance
that a Japanese tourist might be around
and willing to translate,
but we're the only ones there.
"I wish my dad was here,"
I say,
"Or Auntie Lynn,"
adds Robin,
but they're not
and we lack their talent
for languages.
We try our best
with shrugs and gestures
but all we have is apologies.
Eventually,
with a tetchy 'sayonara',
the otter slips back through the waves
leaving us
none the wiser.
Apr 15, 2018
Apr 15, 2018 at 10:55 AM UTC
thick laughter and full bellied countries
and oceans between us, but messages
in bottles helped alleviate the tetchy loneliness
white gold wine, paul mitchell shampoo
velvet scented, beguiling homesickness
in this neon sadness the february rain dumps
victim of starry angel teeth, sinking into my skin
dirt is flower rust, love is southern gothic
miles are scars along the wires and satellites
creeping treacle blues.
Jan 29, 2016
Jan 29, 2016 at 10:13 PM UTC
This teetotaler turns to tea
torquing temptation
towards tippling
thankfully, though
that tremendous tugging
teasing tendency thirst *******
thru teaching this totally tubular
toothless titular Texan thuggish tyrant
(titled Tsar Terry Troutman)
transcendental theology
tenets taught transferring
torpedoing, taming threatening
titanic tsunami tempest
tastefully tickling temperance
testing trying taut tenacity
together teaming (troika)
triumvirate torchbearers
*********** therapist
(Tony the tiger)
tough trailblazer theoretician
toady treacly Tory
(Tommy Two Tone),
thence thirdly Theodore
"Tornado" Tornetta)
themselves trained to tamp
twerking tremens triggers,
their tripartite treatment told
tattooing thorny transforming
took this then truant teenage turtle
through time traveling
to those truant tumultuous tragic,
toxic, tipsy twitchy, touchy, tetchy
typhoon terrible two times two
times two times two tantrum
throwing, thieving, threatening
taxing textured teen tinder times -
tossing, tilting, taking tankful tolled
throaty, thoroughly,
thickly telltale temblor
toured terrible tournament
testing taupe tumbling termagant (Thaddeus)
tangling (Tangoing) tiny Timothy,
the treacherous tarantula
tying tussling travail – tata!
May 16, 2018
May 16, 2018 at 6:31 PM UTC
Ahem (in your own head)
...........
"AHEM"
Scan your crowd, over the top of your glasses if possible
Tough?
Could be
Depends on who read the resume
On who knows what
On who knows who
On who knows you
This could be a breeze depending whats on offer
Are they here for your wit or for the real thing
This long winded corporate speech, I'm not here to sing
They look like they are tetchy
Some even nonplussed as this is anything but fetching
How to wow a crowd in 5 minutes without sounding preachy
Revert to Powerpoint as a distraction technique
I'm trying to give myself here at the height of my peak
To anyone of any faith, Christian, Muslim or Sikh
The whole point of me being here is to sell my goods to the crowd
I'm here to teach as my product is at its best
You've seen the others all fallen from the same nest
Now look at mine with that extra bit of wow, pizzazz and zest
So this is the part that come Au Natural and you cannot teach
I need the people in front of me in awe and at my feet as this is,
How to Write a Speech....
"Hello....."
JJB
Jan 25, 2019
Jan 25, 2019 at 8:44 AM UTC
Heed tetchy static, roving around McArthur.
I can feel the steady impulse breed flaxen flumine.
Songs tumble notes as ladies sing blunt-mouthed tune.
You croon with them, mindless of the force that tries
to break free past the console. Your voice is analogous
to reticence. I hear nothing, feel everything underneath the lazy glow
of the sign that says Yield plastered to a decrepit signage past the
posh city buoys of Jupiter. Everything comes to a halt
in the remote red light district. Somewhere behind those thick walls
that enshroud the fumes of tantric body heat, I can feel the ground
stop in that disconsolate delineation: morose and encumbered,
outnumbered by the cognoscenti that filled the streets unwilling
to give us directions to whereabouts we rarely have knowledge of.
cigarettes rammed deep within their mouths, masticating the cloud
of nicotine as though it were tender meat, I hear the radio go
ballistic past the sign now that reads Exit.
Jan 27, 2016
Jan 27, 2016 at 3:40 AM UTC
An older lady…No mask… arsenic and old lace
scuttling along…so I think to cross.
Just to give her more space.
“I haven’t got it…” she shouts, full bore, almost in my face
“No… but I might have - you just don’t know.
There’s no point in you having a go!”
“I’m wearing a mask to protect both of us
so I don’t know why you’re making a fuss.”
“I told you I haven’t got it… so you can just get stuffed”
Whoa… a minute!… Who’s rattled your bars?
Would you like a mask. I always carry a spare?
“You can just **** off”, she said “ ‘cos I really don’t care!”
She’s the one who waves her stick at cars
and picks imaginary fluff off her coat…
So she needs to be looked out for… looked after.
Next time I’ll be on the look out. I’ll take special note
maybe go round the block the other way.
That way I won’t upset her; she’ll have a better day.
I know this situation is affecting everyone
in every country all around the world. People get tetchy.
But that’s no good reason to abandon reason.
It’s rough, it’s tough - and even good manners are
sometimes not enough… So make time
for others who can’t make the best of things.
Best accept we’re in this for the long haul
because that’s what it’s going to be…
For a generation at least this will be
the way we have to live… balancing
breathing freely against economics,
against promises of socialising in the sun…
Then - No Fun!...No Frolics
Against drip-stands, ventilators and fears that run
deep into our county, our country… our world.
Here she comes again… “I ain’t got it, I ain’t got it!”
Good for you girl!
Feb 7, 2021
Feb 7, 2021 at 6:56 AM UTC
One minute please
Pleasure pain going insane
Itchy tetchy smile in vein
One minute please
Pulse rapid mouth dry
Be polite don’t dare cry
One minute please
Chest tight fight or flight
Deep breath no no oxygen panic peaks a new hight
One minute please
World spins room dims
Numb limbs
One minute please
And I’m okay
What an odd reaction to a stranger saying good day...
Jan 22, 2019
Jan 22, 2019 at 9:56 PM UTC
Bare-breasted this afternoon facing the Sun
northward
there could be more places for heat like this in homes
so shattered, their faces of malaise – a hundred days of gambol
boys in their sanguine shirts; the myth of sun
is truth of soul, or moon
clear vantage of something – neighbors leaving
radios wheezing in tetchy static,
dogs panting in dry *** lawn the verdigris,
the marauder in the market, all moving towards
even sounds shorn out of the daily are pure:
the prattling neighbor again back in the foyer,
the revolution of an old van and the dismay
of a septuagenarian, the harangue
of a mother, or somewhere, the marching of
soldiers shot dead – sun’s always painting pristine
the milieu, so we can see now past the papers,
the truthfulness of atrocities;
there came by you,
in your full brightness, blotches of sun – untouched
by the heat, you’re passing and passing – in transit, nothing is snatched
as the neighbors beat through.
Apr 13, 2016
Apr 13, 2016 at 11:31 PM UTC