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on Ukraine
oh by the way, foodBlack Sea Grain Initiativethe world needs feeding ~ n.b. Would you mind passing the bread basket, while you’re at each other’s throats? The blithe expectation that wheat grain from Ukraine will not only be sown, grown, harvested, but shipped out, despite the nation being invaded by Moscow and the mercenaries, strikes →
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Passing Conversation at the Service Station, Folkestone, Kent, October 2019
They’d not seen each other for simply agesIt used to be regular, when they’d got their wagesOff for an evening, best clobber onLeaving at home Bert, Harry and Ron (except, that Ron’s been long since gone)You still doing those dating sites?Asked Sheila, needing to adjust her tightsYes. replied her friend with a weary sighKnowing they →
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From the Main Yard
Haul the sheets hard boysHaul them full hard Pull the line tight boysWe’ll hang old BoneyFrom the main yardEmpty that ale jugLeave Kitty’s bedGather your bag, JackIt’s time you fledHaul the sheets hard boysHaul them full hardPull the line tight boysWe’ll hang old BoneyFrom the main yardAway from Spice IslandWe’ll have to flyKiss Molly farewell, →
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Due to Engineering Works between Thetford and Paignton Buses will be Replacing Trains this Weekend
It was a difficult time between usThe train I’d often catch replaced by busTwo hundred fifty miles through EnglandReconciliation roses in handWilting as the air-con churned out dry heatPetals accumulated at my feetThe stop at Didcot allowed time to callSweet connection to my Lauren BacallFrom a phone box with a urinal’s aromaI could reassure I’d →
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A Broken Heart
Flapping desperately on the highwayTrying to escape its precarious positionIn the centre of the outside laneStrangely stuck to the tarmacBlack wings flashing deep blueWhen catching the last lightWhat drew it down here?What prevented escape?A bit of victim blaming, I admitDid this crow delay departing?Stay for one last peckof the warm flesh that caught its eye?On-coming →
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Lights
On four separate pylons, one per cornerThe things to look for, Proper LightsNot strung out beads along the top of each standA symmetry of steel sentries attending the stadiumPerspective rotating the shining pinsAs the train curves into townOr the main road breaks into capillariesUntil proximity fixes the viewNeck craned I’d seek the service ladderWondering who →
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Tempest
Caps of Atlasdeafened by clattering hail stormsheep up and runseek the stone shelterleaving the flowersgulping fresh water~n.b. NaPoWriMo 2023. Take a poem, or fragment that was written in a tongue unfamiliar to the reader and write an original poem in English based on the sounds and rhythms of the original language.Here is the original, a →
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Funereal
‘We’ll laugh about this one day’ you saidAs the first handful of soil smuttered on the lidI looked at the other lads, all smart that day, in black coats‘Unlikely’ I’d replied, ‘There’s nothing funny about it.’Typically, it was sunny, belying the moodDaffodils dancing happily in the onshore breezeA few puffy clouds sliding past, against the →
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Snakeskin Boots
Dolphins threaded the white horsesFrigate birds drifted o’er our wakeWe hauled ropes in song, with cursesDolphins threaded the white horsesDreams of Frisco, gold in pursesSun kissed women, fine boots of snakeDolphins threaded the white horsesFrigate birds drifted o’er our wake ~ n.b. NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 4. Triolet time. CLP 04/04/2023 →
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On Moscow
Spiders eating each other in a jarI saw one, a Pholcus phalandgioidesthe Daddy Long Legs spiderEat a Crane Fly, THE Daddy Long LegsIt was a warm autumn evening.Fluttering, where wall met ceiling, caught my earThe spider’s small round body, an impossibly small pea-sized pea sizedeterminedly consuming its larger preyThe crane fly’s slow-motion crumplingjoint by joint, →
Journey of Words 