CHILDHOOD (Remove filter)
shrimping net city
There’s nothing so pretty
As shrimping net city
Where rock pools are tempting
And hermit crabs charm
In gingham and sandals
With sand between our toes
A spade and a bucket
Held in freckled arms.
The grannies are wiry -
Running down to the ripples
A chorus of children
To left and to right.
As the gulls wheel and deal
On their pasty patrol
...Sunday 2nd December 2012 12:06 pm
Foundations
the blocks of childhood
solid, set square in red brick,
yet from the start porous, lined
by a cancerous quick
so soon perished
barely noticed we chalk one up
then tally them daily
our stars of awe and wonder
in diligent swathes
until the toehold twists
and the road falls away
when the choked black
fear stacked Sunday Psalms
choose today
(a...
Sunday 26th August 2012 11:00 am
With peacocks at kew
It seems too unlikely.
Little girl, pink frock, barefoot
wandering through a glade
following a peacock.
There’s no-one with her.
Just this sapphire creature
at her side.
Putting down our sandwich lunch
worried, we approach.
“Where is your mummy?”
The peacock disappears.
“Over there” she gestures
unconcerned.
Tells us he...
Saturday 16th June 2012 7:16 pm
bus boy
The boy on the bus has eyes like fishes
not dead cod eyes but
perfectly elliptical
fish shaped
slanting.
His father is old, his mother
wears sensible shoes.
An only child
alarmed by noise, counting solar panels
obsessed by bus timetables.
“What’s that?” to everything
clutching at mother when a branch
clatters on the roof
or...
Wednesday 13th June 2012 9:53 am
tent
There’s no room in my tent for you
Only space enough for me
My feet poke out quite brave
The rest of me hidden away.
Bees buzz, grass tickles my toes
That’s all of the world I need
If my tent had a big iron lock
I’d lock it to keep you out.
I’ve got crayons and a big book
And sandwiches in a tin
And I don’t have to let you talk
And I don’t...
Sunday 8th April 2012 4:43 pm
Ten Minutes
I am the oldest of four girls,
And four girls can be a crowd.
Time alone with Mother was the stuff of wishes.
One morning I awoke early and realized:
My sisters are still asleep!
There was a faint rattle of cutlery.
And Mummy is down in the kitchen by herself!
I slithered out of bed and crept down the stairs
Masterfully negotiating the squeaks
Hardly believi...
Sunday 5th February 2012 6:14 pm
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