A Piece of Paper

When we were poor you gave me a piece of paper when banks still issued them and used what little savings you had to give me the only thing I was lacking For you had already given me everything else That I had ever wanted….

Finkle Spurrt

Squizzle finkle pop sqirzle Squish squad Straining to shuffle into view With one eye it peeks From beneath a sheet of gold So fine It could have been spun by intergalactic gold worms With no fear it appeared on the way to school   It…

XXII

Brats don’t give a fuck Construction was never in my world, Too cold to miss the game Noo excuses might see the lovely Suzie Lucky Suz I call her A dead cat stretches out perhaps it’s sleeping   Cut this wind to the back of…

Longing

I’ve learned not to long for things Not out loud anyway In case it makes the pixies Remember what a sense of humour is And execute some swift response at my expense.   I’ll keep shtum, lips pressed together Heart beating lightly and perhaps I’ll…

Lumiere

It came from the top I thought we were about to be plunged into darkness for the whole evening But it came from above I saw the prism fan out light the screen from the projector box above and beyond.   He had one arm…

Apolemia

They begin in single file possibly as breeders with a clone already attached they leave their cars in schoolyards and then again in carparks until they arrive in supermarkets pushing carts with kids in them round the aisles and what looked like one or two…

Tick Tock Holiday Clock

Tick Tock clock dead No-one checks what the kids watch on TV when on their  own Ring Ring Phone Broken Doesn’t take any time to stare out into space so you can do it as much as you like you will never be late  …

Hang Up

Don’t let her speak to you that way In what I thought was profound and sound advice to one so much younger than myself   But I confused her all the more   I don’t know what it means She said to me, hesitating,  hoping…

A Great Mane

A potentially interminable state of being. The one where any brush cannot prise apart When the fingertips have to strip back to claw their way though the tresses Arms rowing through tempests over reed beds , fighting with mermen for coral combs with which to…

As Beautiful As Burning Fire

The autumnal colours spattered through the copse Leaves releasing musky essence of each vein’s blood Overhead stayed upon the branches no wind to pare them Were locked in Elven arrangements As might reindeer be to snowy travel Beautiful season it worked its way deep into…