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Grave
Grave
I am the scythe that cuts through old and young
In cornfields where the idle crows watch on
As scarecrows flap their arms in summer sun
And wonder where the greedy birds have gone
The weeds grow now where once the sharp blade fell
Stealing from us all that we once held dear
There are no devils in this weeping hell
Only children transformed through pain and fear
...Tuesday 24th March 2020 11:43 pm
Bag Of Bones
Bag Of Bones
Please let me introduce myself -
my name is Billy Jones.
You might know me better
as that useless bag of bones
that gets under your feet
when you’re staring at your phones,
planning all your creature comforts
on extortionate pay day loans.
Well I was once like you my friend,
I haven’t always been alone
huddled up in corners
where the autumn lea...
Friday 17th March 2017 12:58 am
Rich Pictures
Rich Pictures
catching wasps in cobwebs
brutal lines and angles
graffiti strewn puddles
homeless persons
hopeless gaze
shimmer on a wheelchair
in an old abandoned hospital
where cries ring out at night
In the empty cells
demons in the trees
caught in click
spiral monsters
under piers
foaming lap
of northern tides
fractured bulbs
...Wednesday 6th January 2016 12:09 am
We Are The Dead
We Are The Dead
we are the dead
the unrequited love
the words we never said
the dreams we never realised
we are the dead
we are the dead
sat in front of the TV
spending too long in bed
wasting our lives away
we are the dead
we are the dead
arguing among ourselves
never leading being led
to places we don’t want to go
we are the dead
...
Sunday 18th October 2015 6:58 pm
Wide Is The Gate And Broad Is The Road
Wide Is The Gate And Broad Is The Road
A sky bleached like old bones
dug from damp earth on an autumn morning.
The pale sun spits on car roofs in a Northern town
where colours hide behind a sheen of grey.
Tram tracks, like silver trails of slugs,
pacing the slowly walking midnight man.
Something ancient and horrid has left a double-mustard
trail of crumbs for him to follow, but nev...
Friday 13th March 2015 12:26 pm
Dexteram Patris
Dexteram Patris
Uncomfortable
seeing him that way,
and she,
ever supportive,
gently touching
his arm
for reassurance
but there is a failing,
something not the same,
although in looks
we are so similar.
The Prodigal returns
and sees his father,
straight of back
and stern of countenance,
falling to pieces.
The once proud frame -
busted
and she,
as beautiful as always,
...
Monday 2nd March 2015 7:12 pm
Gatekeeper
Gatekeeper
All seeing eyes
Guardian of the gate,
Sat atop
the stairway of skins.
Sewn together
with satyr hair.
Counting the days,
ticking them off
in a parchment book
with a pen on a string
twined with spider thread.
Sits in the sunlight
and watches the workers
to-ing and fro-ing
like ants on a hill
with their own little tasks,
while he has no legs,
just sits in a chair
wei...
Thursday 19th February 2015 9:30 pm
Snapshot Narrative
The remains of a day
lie extinguished, discarded,
disregarded by the passers-by.
Silver-tipped echo of a mouth
unremarked upon
and common
in its everyday normality.
Evocatively comforting
in stained familiarity;
an endless capability
for rainbow possibilities
of shining eyes and laughter l...
Monday 2nd February 2015 2:40 pm
Eviction
Eviction
They were young
and cowering in an alley,
fearful for the future,
as sirens screeched
around them.
The sky a molten white
of churning clouds.
Everyone running,
colliding, jostling,
trying to be anywhere
but here.
She turned to him
with moist eyes
and lips the colour
of arterial blood.
When he tilted
her chin upwards
her gaze never left
the yellowing smoke
unt...
Monday 26th January 2015 7:54 pm
Arroyo
Arroyo
The rain has fallen down for twenty hours
from a dead sky of slate and granite hews,
dampening the walls of urban towers.
Cobbled streets the colour of an old bruise,
tyres rattle over pothole dark drains,
counterpoint to some distant splashing shoes.
The day cast in monochromatic stains
as water forms itself into a lake
that eddies into inner city lanes.
A passing car cre...
Tuesday 25th November 2014 7:13 pm
Tinsmith
Tin to mouth
Tin to feet
One jig to reel
enough to eat
Is he broken, broke, breaking
on the pavement by the station?
Is he played, paid, playing
to his own tune or to yours?
Tin to mouth
Tin to feet
Two jigs to reel
enough to eat
Do you jingle jangle shillings
in your pocket as you’re walking
past the tinsmith making
all the magi...
Tuesday 18th November 2014 9:41 am
A Tree In The Elephant's Graveyard
A Tree In The Elephant’s Graveyard
It began with a pen
and paper,
beneath a tree.
Carried here
upon a rat
to rest awhile.
The paper was white
and stared at me
insolently.
The pen hovered,
dripping ink
like tears.
A serpent
coiled itself
around My neck.
I thought of stars
and dreamt
of gouache landscapes.
Still the paper
would not
fuck the pen.
My thoughts
were clear,
...
Monday 17th November 2014 8:13 pm
Jigsaw
stealing pieces of experience
to place them just outside of your own
j
i
g
s
a
w
y our
semiotic symptom
of a need to reproduce;
connote two-tone heartbreak
tragedy ripped
from a 2D playground
second-hand realities
suck on r...
Wednesday 5th November 2014 9:52 am
Afraid Of The Dark
Afraid Of The Dark
what you can’t see
cannot hurt you
ghouls and ghosts
things of the dark
things you don’t understand.
close your eyes go to sleep
think of happy things and places
let your mind move on
be at peace child
the thing that scratches at the window
you know it’s just a branch
the creak of a floorboard
late at night
a cold chill that drifts
through a warm house
the un...
Tuesday 21st October 2014 6:59 pm
Weird Sisters
Weird Sisters
when did we four last meet
with doctor martins on our feet
hubble, bubble trick or treat
kiss and tell arms to greet
looks that kill in a heartbeat
concrete steps as a seat
stir the cauldron feel the heat
cool as fuck neat neat neat
no surrender no retreat
angel faces so petite
whiplash smiles sugar sweet
weird sisters of the street
Inspired By: photograph by Ri...
Friday 17th October 2014 11:42 am
funeral days
funeral days
funeral days
should always be like this
early mourning dew
in the eyes of those gathered
under a slate grey sky
(not blasphemous blue)
whose heavy tears
will splash
the golden Judas kiss
of leaves crackling
beneath disrobed trees
betraying the sadness
with their joyful colour
the heavy damp sods of earth
clinging close to the coffin
like the grief
that surrounds...
Friday 10th October 2014 7:14 pm
The Lines
I stand and admire the lines,
not always so straight.
The concrete veins through the places of old
we once walked,
through to the quagmire paths
where you first found my arm after stumbling.
The burrows, dark and secret, where lips pressed
against the soft feel of ripe naked fruit.
Canals, rivers, brooks, streams we have strolled along,
flowing the only way the valleys a...
Tuesday 30th September 2014 10:15 am
kraken
kraken
leviathan
rusty bones
supporting hide
of rotting wood
the pungent smell
of seaweed
digesting
long dead things
its aged frame
crawls ashore
clicking like
fighting crabs
groaning
exertions
sand sloughing
from its skin
primordial
grey skies
clinging mist
clothing it
in gloom
a thousand
scrabbling legs
gripping claws
taking root
heaving carcass
to the shore
Friday 19th September 2014 7:28 pm
Corridor of Song
In this corridor of song,
invocations colour space
now devoid of human voice,
as spirits whisper here
of hysterical imprisonment;
of torture painted pink and blue
and baa baa black sheep have you any
Hail Mary full of grace
Supplications resonate
in hidden mouths
as mournings cry to sing of l...
Friday 12th September 2014 9:56 am
Snipers
Snipers
was it out there
that I became a ghost?
I may be an unreliable witness
the constant stress does that to you
the days spent outside, unprotected
with a local population
that won’t look you in the eye
or when they do
they have the look of hate
that you are even there at all
if only the locals were less hostile
to my cause
if only I could count on my military team
to back ...
Monday 8th September 2014 7:32 pm
Twisted Harvest
crouched
quiet in the crackling grasses
hidden
listening to clouds swell heavy
ready
waiting for the judgement hour
of cutting
scythed where the ears can’t hear you
running
trusting steel to complete this
sowing
now that the earth lies sanguine
sodden
drip drop rinse and release your
sin...
Wednesday 20th August 2014 12:11 pm
The Crooked Beast At The End Of A Crooked Path
The Crooked Beast At The End Of A Crooked Path
I saw him rise like a dark spectre
in the clouds
at the end of a crooked path
his horned head cocked
spreading his cloven claws
astride the graves that nestled
safe beneath the trees
his wings unfurling
across the sky
and gathering in
the long dead souls
beneath the ground
and I thought
I heard the demon say
“I told you I would not fo...
Monday 18th August 2014 7:33 pm
Dead Men's Boots
Dead Men’s Boots
tough as old leather
their souls worn down
eyes vacant of lace
collected by the door
the day they swapped
their pit-boots
for the Kings shilling
and donned their shiny
new military issue
there they stayed
gathering dust
and old potatoes
in their safe grasp
neatly lined
waiting for the return
of father and two sons
to the safety
of their hearth
day after da...
Friday 1st August 2014 11:09 pm
An Angel Bathes In Tears
An Angel Bathes In Tears
Diniel rested for a second
and turned his eyes away
from those that he was caring for
and in that moment all was lost.
Now he bathes in the cascades
of acidic human tears
that flood the world with grief.
Erosive and corrosive
at the passing of infant souls
in a war that has no meaning
in a world that has no morals.
Now his dainty angel features
disappear unt...
Friday 25th July 2014 2:30 pm
Blood Moon
Blood Moon
“Sweet Katarina, dance for me”,
said the man with the black balloon,
whose face looked rather like a wolf
if glanced in the back of a spoon -
and for each dance she did for him
he would pass her another string
with a midnight helium ball
tied on to its end with a ring.
She danced until her little hands
were full of the magical twine
and the villagers all agreed
they’d ne...
Friday 4th July 2014 2:09 pm
Craiglockhart (Not Yet Diagnosed Nervous)
Craiglockhart (Not Yet Diagnosed Nervous)
When I kicked over the wheelchair
I couldn’t do the simplest task,
except the epileptic flailing
of my military antimasque.
Turning on the hissing gas-lamp
had me reaching for the mask.
You opened up my mind
and you didn’t even ask.
Sh-sh-sh shut the fuck up,
I think I’m going insane,
I’ve got all these bombs
going off in my brain.
I’m lik...
Wednesday 2nd July 2014 3:17 pm
23:4 re-drawn
Mr Martlew
would you mind
if I sit awhile here
in the shade on my own,
you hushed in your hole,
in the valley of the shadow?
Shall I re-draw life
in the black lines etched above your bones?
Did it hurt?
Were you scared?
Do the stones weigh heavy?
Do they creak beneath the roses
and the green glass gravel?
Did it hurt?
Were you scared?
Were you read...
Tuesday 1st July 2014 9:51 am
Cascade
Ferris ocularity,
observing holy motion,
facilitates the weaving
of an elemental web.
Cirrus drips precipitate
a waving,
all devoted to rotation,
sewing oceanic lace
and braiding rain
to brine the breeze.
Pleasure seeks a penny slot
as bed and breakfast tongues
lick the candy cane locale. ...
Sunday 8th June 2014 1:14 pm
Wayward
I wanted you right from the start.
As soon as I saw you, all shiny and showing,
inquisitive shimmerings leapt in my neurons,
grew fast and furious, battering synapses,
crashing through cortices,
carrying fire.
Bewitched! A thousand fantasies sparked and swirled in frontal lobes.
You shifted shape from mind to page,
drew me in, singing from a sheet I thought we sha...
Tuesday 20th May 2014 2:29 pm
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