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How The Bankers Foreclosed About Him
How the bankers foreclosed about himWe shall never knowHow he stretched his credit ratingThat is covered tooSpreads the bank its interest chargesBold about the boyWhose unpaid for hat and jacketSum the history ~ n.b. NaPoWriMo 2023. Day 14 prompt, parody of, or satirise a well-known poem. Here using Emily Dickinson’s ‘How The Waters Closed About →
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on Ukraine
corporate killersrecruiting mercenariesbusiness as usual ~ n.b. The Wagner Group is the ultimate in government outsourcing operations. How can the war end when so many make money from conflict? The EU has just reiterated sanctions on Wagner Group associates. Meanwhile shares in weapons manufacturers soar. See BAe shares for the past three years , for →
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Ha Bloody Ha
“Tell me a joke,she said”something to makeme cry” “With laughter?”I askedseekingverification “Not necessarily”she sighed ~ n.b. NaPoWriMo 2023. Day 13 prompt. Surely not? Are you joking? CLP 13/04/2023 →
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on poetry
Ink drawn down by a ballTracking the shapes of symbolsForming letters, leaving wordsThat flowed down the armImpulses sparked from synapsesPassed out of the craniumOnto a leaf of compressed treeWatched through the eyesImages impress on the retinasChecked back into the headCompared with the thoughtsOriginated in a jumbleMemory, imagination, emotionCharacters coughed up from a character ~ n.b. →
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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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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 →
Journey of Words 