on time

I suppose I could have
made better use of my time
I tried my best, honest

~

n.b. 29c at midnight brings new challenges.

CLP 19/08/2022

on time

we have had warning
so how long have we got now
starting yesterday

~

n.b. This joke isn’t funny anymorethe warm weather, I mean.

CLP 22/07/2022

on time

left on open grass
laid without ceremony
better things to do?

~

n.b. To the human eye these looked white, to the camera this beautiful blue.

CLP 18/07/2022

on the wing

someone is happy
heat from south draws up insects
squeal of swifts sweep roofs

~

n.b. What joy in the tearaway swooping of young swifts playing tag in between the chimney pots!

CLP 16/07/2022

on spring

after bright warm day
night still comes in winter clothes
no allowances

~

n.b. It was nippy walking home tonight!

CLP 24/03/2022

on light

jeepers! steady on!
you do realise it's March?
get back in your box!!!

~

n.b. We can talk climate disruption, or turn on the air-con. You choose.

CLP 23/03/2022

on Switzerland iii

heat of late September
accumulating moisture
brewing thunder storms

~

CLP 25/09/2021

Man-made

blocks lined-up from blue-prints
radiate back late summer heat
deny sleep

~

CLP 07/09/2021

Late June

early evening rain falling heavy on hot soil, tarmac, stone

evaporates fast, forms humid stock, soured by sweat

bubbles up in steaming cumuli that boil over

drive down dust, pollen and temperature

so that tonight we might sleep

unless it doesn’t and the thick soup simply simmers

as we pull covers off, ache for breathe, pull covers on

attempt to seduce sleep with scent

dowse it with floods of dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin

and still we’ll perspire with pulses pounding

hotter, damp, worse than before

praying for a storm to break

a storm that will wake us where we fell

after sleep caught us off guard

as we lay alert to the flight of a curious mosquito

~

CLP 24/06/2021

On High

.

Gulls feast on ants’ flight

Wily crow, black spot of night

Blends into the light

~

n.b. On days as hot as these ants hatch and fly in millions, a boon to the scavangers of the coast and quick-witted corvids. How far they climb! How many are eaten? How many must be born and borne aloft to survive the insatiable gulls and crow?

CLP 17/07/2020