14th May

See what happens?
You finally make an effort
To shrug off Winter's grim shroud

Music, dancing
smiles, joyful tears
and yes, the swifts

Swooping and slicing
through the humid air
skimming chimney pots

Their shrieking and screaming
is, I suppose,
what they excuse as singing

~

n.b. No guarantee of a good summer.

CLP 15/05/2023

on Ukraine

"...if real peace talks start"
the newspaper suggested
what a bloody game

~

CLP 12/05/2023

thunder storm

In false warmth of May
Anvil clouds pile up
Eclipse the blue
Cast down hail stones
Lightning spearing the gloom
Basal crashes shaking the old town
Stair rods rattling on the streets

Don picks up his bedroll
Seeks shelter
In the cathedral porch

Jean stumbles to the library
Her mismatched clothes
Selected from chance finds
And what she stuffed into a rucksack
On escaping home

Aaron sweats in his black bin liner
String pulled tight
Around his wasting waist
Half asleep
Half aware
Half under a hedge
His sore feet wet

In coffee shops
Talk of weather percolates
Through the Americano chat
How miserable and on my day off

If only Don had a day off too
And Jean and Aaron
And all the people who a warm dry day
Was all they hoped for this cruel May

~

CLP 11/05/2023

on time

on empty platform
I coulda, woulda, shoulda
your train long departed

~

n.b. When’s the last train?

CLP 11/05/2023

on Ukraine

We wait for the cuckoos
Their calls prompting dreams of summer
You wait for the cuckoos to leave
Their absence prompting dreams of peace

~

CLP 10/05/2023

Leaves

I hear
Trees trembling
Before I feel
A droplet
Cold on my brow
Before I see
Dark spots
Marking the path
Before I choose
To walk on
Under shivering oak leaves

~

CLP 10/05/2023

at last

is it just like
that
a flat line running
until the monitor is switched off
cleaned down, prepared
for another
or are there hiccoughs
glitches
hesitations, lost hours
resumptions
imperceptible
diminuation of spark
until the inevitable
the flame extinguished
but no smoking candle
just gone

~

CLP 09/05/2023

on train windows

I forgot how raindrops
Run in ribbons
Across the pane
Coalesce, bursting through
The meniscus of droplets
Which are then swallowed up
By bigger drops
Which swell at each impact
Until the tension becomes too great
And they peel away
To form a drunken line
Plotting the relationship
Between the train's velocity
And the pull of gravity

~

CLP 06/05/2023

Inherited

my mother's eyes
my dad's demeanour
not land, nor castles
income from estates
the staff, titles
the homes, the jewels
not the taxpayers cash
interest on millions
property worth billions
no power to tweak laws
before they're set
not wealth passed on
from a rich woman
to her son
an accident of birth
no one chooses
to get born
the luck of the draw
to be fit and strong
isn't that enough
with my mother's eyes
my dad's demeanour

~

CLP 06/04/2023

Full Cycle

Take me in your arms
Under the full moon
In the cool air
Of early May
Owls celebrate
Their rites of spring
In the woodland
Along the ridge
Bluebells unfold
Before the foliage above
Steals all the light
Shades in silver shadows
The church bell
Chimes the quarter past
It's early yet
Still time for bed
Hold me in your arms
We'll watch the full moon set
From our warm sheets
In early May

~

n.b. It keeps coming round, lighting our steps, marking our progress.

CLP 05/05/2023