Category Archives: Poetry

The Ballad Of Mavis Stockdale.

Mavis “The Shredder” Stockdale always wanted to be a renowned guitarist,

one who could take the simplest of ideas laid down by the songwriter

and burn the opposition to the outskirts of Hell

and leave audiences gasping in the wake of a lover letter placed chord

and suffering the beauty of a well plucked string.

Above all, Mavis knew she could duel banjo, guitar, mandolin and violin,

but with sad reflection not the cello as she had seen a God play with perfection

one night in the Cavern one night, her hair flowing red but shimmering with depth

The Ballad Of Mavis Stockdale. full post

(492 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

The Madness Of King March.

March stands on the precipice of life and dislikes the view.

The infant King, fawned over, lauded, feted and feared in equal measure,

the tyrant teenage regal monster and the early despot in waiting

rages. His senses coloured, polarised by anger, unhappiness and sorrow,

understands only too well that for all his blustering fury, this is not

what he was meant to be to the people in his shadow.

 

The blackness of the sky, the rage and fury, the odd measure of calm

in another wise incensed frenzy in which ships shiver in still icy waters ,

The Madness Of King March. full post

(468 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Strung

Speak to me of love, she said,

and think on the sun’s subtle shade,

and please remember this is Valentine’s Day.

 

Speak to me of love, he said,

and wish upon this night time’s gentle gasp,

and on languid limbs lipped to dreaming better memory.

 

Her tongue bruised all the fruit from his words

as they ripened to tumble dew-drenched from

crystal eyes, as his hands tore at blossomed clumps

now crushed to weep beneath his palms. Teeth on skin

and pressed in sweat to test her neck’s brittle thinness,

Strung full post

(347 words, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

My Tortured Companion.

…I want to scream, for screaming makes the pain seem less acute

for the briefest of moments and in the end brief respite can surely only be noble.

I should buckle under the weight of it all and prepare my coffin suit

and place my emotional trust in the fall out quality of Chernobyl.

 

You have been the most faithful of companions, conspiring harridan.

Never wavering in your ability to astound and fuck me over, friend

time and time again, if personified, you would make the most evil of men

My Tortured Companion. full post

(199 words, estimated 48 secs reading time)

Coming Down Hard In The Right Places.

We are so sorry to inform you

that we are going to have to close you down and take your licence away

after finding disturbing material on your premises, now be careful what you do

or indeed what you say,

for there is no arguing with the evidence of you supplying hard

karaoke to the citizens of this town,

lethal stuff that would confound the most elegant sounding of any bard

and in which it sounds like cats you are trying to drown.

 

I charge you with section 101 of the criminal penal act,

Coming Down Hard In The Right Places. full post

(301 words, estimated 1:12 mins reading time)

Exposed To Different Light.

How can it be in this a civilised age

that we can fail not just those who try to change the world,

the young and full and ideas and sense beyond the crèche

of the Westminster island, but those who find

their way to emulation is to stand scowling at the passers by,

the feral

dogs  keeping guard, the accessory to modern sainthood

as they patrol the streets in black armour, the modern knights

of the uneven and tattered pavement.

 

How is it possible to see the divide between the same coin,

Exposed To Different Light. full post

(303 words, estimated 1:13 mins reading time)

Insanity

She used to only call me when she was drunk,

or in need of some way to be herself,

to flop down on whatever couch or bed

I had in the spare room

for five minutes and allow the weight

of the world to be unfurled and hung out to dry.

When she was drunk I could cope, she was never there for long,

and always courteous to my own need for space.

When she was sober, she would wheedle her way into my head and dare

Insanity full post

(281 words, estimated 1:07 mins reading time)

Sometimes I Allow You To Breathe.

Our relationship has always been based on the need of one side,

yet today has been calm, composed and full of peace

and I wonder if the positions were reversed, in me would you confide

and I wonder if it should have always been like this, a tranquil release.

 

I sat back, I relaxed and did nothing but listen to you breathe,

your sincerity of spirit I realise I had kept always out of sight

I had asked you many times silently to leave

but in my head, you talked away unhindered, secretly loved, never used in spite.

Sometimes I Allow You To Breathe. full post

(180 words, estimated 43 secs reading time)

Chronic.

I don’t remember standing in line with my hands held open,

a wooden bowl and half gnawed wooden spoon, chewed and nibbled at,

distressed over not through hunger but through fucking pain…

but I’m not meant to talk about it, complain or discuss it because

it shows a weakness, it shows lack of moral fibre that my great-grandfather’s

generation would have called Victorian values…the same Victorian

values employed that never allowed a heartbroken woman to grieve properly,

that allowed a monster onto the streets of Whitechapel

Chronic. full post

(446 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Bored To Death

I can’t think of anything worse to find on a gravestone

than the words, born, died, and nothing in between,

save two dates and the inscription dearly departed…

…is that truly all that is left behind once life leaves

the departed behind.

 

If I stand before my gravestone now, a mean feat and fate indeed

as I would like to think I would go out fighting a bear somewhere

in the Canadian outback, armed only with a blunt potato peeler,

an old yellowed and damp from the abundance of snow that

Bored To Death full post

(414 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)