1) Will the weeds rise up

to glorious applause from the garden

when we are all dead?

My mother wants to know

from her comfy chair

by the window.

 

2)I swallowed the southern cross

It was above the City Library

 

3)His beard is smoother than it looks

His perfume settles on the air

He is my poem in the making

 

4)Your words taste like mouth music

 

5)Even though it’s long gone

I still see Susan in Patagonia

dancing the tango 

in a small bar, loud music

macho gaucho flirting

 

6)I can’t reach the stars

they look so close

 

7)She liked the feel of soil

damp, dark in between her fingers

 

8)’You bletherscyte’ he called

the chattering chipmunk

smiling at his granddaughter

 

9)You ate a second dinner 

after I cooked pancakes

I had to write a poem

 

10)It’s about status

lowering status to make them think

he’s so dumb

he’s the kind of dumb who loses his tools

he must be too dumb

to kill his wife and kids

let’s go chaps, nothing to see here

 

11)The happy boy of all time

played endlessly with sticks

from a bridge 

over a river

 

12)The hand cream burns blisters

onto skin already raw

Blood mixes

slippery chemistry

 

13)Miss Lizzy Blue 

has begun to talk to me

in broken english

Her barks have evolved

into metaphor 

Her whimpers 

an invitation for kisses

A new personality

 

14) She was called Cow pat

so she changed her name

She was called Little Yeti

so she changed her name

She was called Nellie

Confused as to her whereabouts 

she changed it again

for definition 

for identity

 

15)I will wish there is a way of cheating 

at Mahjong at the age of 93

 

16)Sweet shit

that it may cover her skin

to hide all her blemishes 

 

17)He will smash all unconvincing lies

He will remember the wars he has seen

He will play pingpong in the retired services bar

 

18)Todora’s Dream

Тази песен изпълва душата ми*

I weep each time I hear it

I am home with each note

(*This song fills my soul – Bulgarian)

 

19) I said out loud I need a new phone

It is now singing to me, unprompted

songs I have never downloaded

in an effort

to keep my attention

 

20) My mother’s garden 

fights her for dominance