• April Showers

    ancient paving smooth as mirrorunderfoot as slick as icereflects back mountainous cloudsrolling around the fenland skies ~ n.b. NaPoWriMo 2023. Day 15. Prompt: feet of clay. Beyond me today. CLP 15/04/2023

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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,

  • 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

  • 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