Category Archives: Poetry

They Use A Different Word.

It is almost as if scientists have discovered

a new subsection of Humanity

that never appeared in the growing pains

of the species between ape and man.

The new hailing stone of enlightenment

and information which comes our way via the mass

media in which the modern discovery was made

suggests that this scientific breathing wonder

that eats, sleeps, makes love and has the capacity

for great artistic endeavour

they found

crossing the seas in search of life

should not exist

and yet as they die in their hundreds,

The Gesture.

It was a small gesture of friendship

in which she decided to put into a clear shot glass

that was once filled to the brim, slightly on edge,

with the taste of Old Balvenie and which now

housed two small remnants of pavement grown

flowers, one opened and with its petals drooping

as it reflects the sunlight;

the other closed, frightened, lost and alone

as it remembers what it was to be a wall flower.

 

The taste of ozone hits the Waterloo and Crosby air

and the flowers take different paths,

A Summer’s Day On Holy Corner.

The sound of a gentle drum beat fills

the crossroads of Holy Corner as the onlookers,

buoyed by the return of a yellow ball of fire

and source of much anticipation of what it will mean

to the rest of the year, are amused to see one man dressed

in a sponge outfit and one looking like a badly drawn

rat square off against each other over pitch and punter

and the sound of fight, fight, fight, is overheard

under the breath of a radical student believing in secret

A Thirty Year Heart.

Nothing had changed save for the faces

being a little older than what I was prepared for,

nothing was different except the for the skyline

having been hijacked by a view that was out of place

and nothing had altered at all,

except for my perception of a world I hadn’t seen in three decades.

 

I looked around me and what I had left behind

and the sweat ran down my forehead, blistering

as it mixed with tears of regret, kept hidden

and just what might have been had I the courage to say no,

The Inappropriate Husband.

I may not have been the most ideal husband

that you could have had, baggage

galore and the wandering lust of the insecure,

not content in boredom and one who finds

it near impossible to dance. Married once before,

turned down twice more and the ignominy

of walking away from an Hispanic woman

who offered me the world, pompous at times

and stubborn as Hell when it comes to backing down

and the worry I have caused as I continue

to break down piece by piece by infuriating

Dust Marks

…Yes, of course it wears you down.

It grinds away at you till at some point you forget

to breathe, you forget that there is more than one

emotion possible and you have to force yourself to grin

like one of humanity’s D.N.A. sharers and

spark life into your soul by doing something stupid,

in other people’s eyes, because you’re in danger

of letting go, and there is no one around to catch you

because they have no idea you’re going to fall.

 

Perhaps it’s not that life is to be lived

Weakness.

The arms around me are so close

and I can smell the delicate squirt of perfume

that lingers around you as you invite me

to remain the fifteen year old boy

who was in love with you

and who thirty years later still crumbles

and goes weak at the knees when I think of love

as pure deliverance and a teenage angst poem

dedicated to you, unseen

hidden in the pages of a diary in which your name

appears scrawled over and over again.

 

With our youth all around us,

Selfless Junius.

May’s beauty is at end

but this is not the end of the year’s story

for as she wraps the string of pearls given

to her by Jupiter’s wife

in recognition for accepting what Tiresias could never

in either guise deliver, Junius’ further accession

to the pride of womanhood is to name herself

Queen of the northern isle again.

 

Her sister in the South is restless and blows hard

to turn the world on its axis, the diametric twins

of Junius and December

at odds with each behind

Sharks.

I ignore it because I have to

for if I don’t the end

might truly come quicker

and I’m not yet prepared to meet my maker and look

Her in the eye and have the smile of contempt and withering

look of told you come my way.

 

I’m not prepared to meet Her because you don’t deserve

the honour of being the one to finish me off,

too make this pain in my chest, which I refuse

to believe is anything but my heart shouting abuse

The Healer.

What do you do when Time has neglected to inform

that there has been an ache in your heart

which you never realised existed till the pain

hits you square in the jaw and rips your guts apart?

You can but smile and flash a grin, because you mean that emotion,

you revel in the mysterious and the unanswered question

for a short while until

Time has a habit of making you nod and securing a truthful exit

as you realise that deep down gnawing at your soul,