Finger sandwiches and black americano,

She watched others in the little high-street bistro

Aloof and from a distance,

A sort of elsewhere, nowhere, socialising.

She checked her phone screen,

The picture of the young man

Still unchanged from the last time she checked

Just a few moments before,

There were no missed calls to return,

No texts to reply to,

She lingered for...

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There was once a sad young man from Leeds,

Who struggled through life, with special needs,

Physically abused while at school

Mentally confused; considered a fool,

He committed suicide on his TikTok feed

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My friend, the poet, is a fraud

(He's also intellectually flawed),

He strings together, badly I'm afraid,

Words without rhyme, their meanings strayed,

Undecipherable as hieroglyphics

Less literary, somewhat more scientific,

Four-line stanzas of moans and groans

Naked imagery without any flesh or bones,

I've read several lines of his so-called verse

Each following line ap...

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I felt that my life was diminished

My smallest of dreams, suppressed

There stood before me a man of conviction
Asserting that I need not feel oppressed.

Like the pied piper he whistled, I listened

Of ancient arcadia, his land of hope

Where I could escape the rigours of conformity

That hung around my neck like a rope

Simply cradle in the soft arms of Morpheus

Safe, fro...

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You have said, that it has to be

Our future is no longer we.

There's always you, but without me.

I cling to our memories of what went before

Before you said we were no more,

With your suitcase in hand, you slammed the door.

It seems strange, yet clear to me, I'm

Unhappy being this carefree,

I want a second chance at being we.

I cling to our memories of what wen...

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She became a woman today

Her marriage vows have fallen away.

As yellowing leaves of an autumnal tree.

All her hurt and shame

She knows just who to blame. 

Inconsistent husband, now the absentee.

With a pounding of his heart that raced

He turned and closed the door in haste.

This half-glazed threshold becomes a barrier.

Love lost wouldn’t again grow st...

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The lady in a long fluffy pink coat 

Over a pink roll-neck sweater, 

Was suffering,

She was suffering from invisible anxiety,

Constantly she cranes her neck behind to see

Furtively looking, 

Out through the cafe door

As if waiting for someone, 

Someone, 

She's not too sure she wants to meet.

Tugging gently at the tassel dangling from her coat

She has anxious d...

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“ John put those back”

“ We don't need them.“

“ No John we don't need those either”

“ Come on.”

 "If we’re not careful, we'll be here all day.”

“ I want to get home, I've had enough shopping”

“ John let’s go and get the milk, then we'll get the bread”

“ No John not here, the floor is not your bed”

“ Come on John move, you can do it”

“ If you're a good we’ll get a slice o...

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SWING THOSE ARMS!

PICK UP THOSE FEET!

LEFT RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT LEFT!

YOU SHOWER OF SHITS!

YOU SHOULD HAVE JOINED THE BLOODY NAVY!

WHAT’S YOUR NAME SON, TINKERBELL, YOU FAIRY!

DON’T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT, I’M NOT YOUR SWEETHEART!

We had just six weeks to go,

Apart from our sleep last night

We had been here in hell just eight hours,

Nothing prepares you for this life...

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A child without influence

Conceived lacking counsel

A child of slender chance

Cry, cry, cry until

This silent life, held in hand, is yours

To shout, I am she,

Hammer deaths doors

Stay my love, stay with me

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As one,

I thought that love was done

Then meeting you

We merged as two

Formerly you were three

Two young sons, and the divorcee

We became four

Them and us, and what's more

Now a family together

The sons, their mother and her lover

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We've both travelled far

We've journeyed long,

You've whistled your tune

I've sung your song,

I've listened intently,

Attended when asked,

We've played our lovers’ game

I've settled for last,

I've danced to your beat,

Recited verse,

You've needed a fool

I've come off worse,

I've lived for and loved you

Throughout the abuse,

Cried silent tears for you,

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Let's hold each other's hands,

And in silence, stand

Where the fields of poppies grow,

Let us remember them

Our brave young men

Buried just below.

For those who cried

As they laid down and died,

So very far from home,

With just white clouds,

Deaths gossamer shrouds

Covering their tortured bones.

Let's think a little more,

Is liberty worth dying for?

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They sat close together at the small square table

Two ladies lunching, demure and cultivated

Maybe wrongly, I surmise they're unrelated

But I sense a friendship of many years

Together, through laughter and many tears

Hair recently coiffured, sprayed with earthquake-proof hold

They appear interchangeable, sat side by side

Both dressed similarly, much refinement implied

...

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Soon be remembrance day so I thought I would offer you this thought

Form a queue boys, form a queue,

Stand still in line boys, stand still in line,

It's coming to you boys, it's coming to you,

One at a time.

Your country needs you boys, your country needs you,

To fight in their wars boys, to fight in their wars,

For the right and the true boys, the right and the...

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Waves rolling slowly, onto an empty shore,

Wash clean the pebbles and the sand,

Whilst bubbling white foam, marks

an evaporating monument to the journey's end.

Freely dancing on the open water,

Light, from the sleepy harbour, reflects

as facets of a cut jewel glistens

Into the gem cutter's eye.

No mourners in melancholic song,

Lament the sea's daily demise,

No me...

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The Abstractor brushes a green day

A pink sun hung in a star-studded rainbow sky

A nude autumnal tree at the conclusion of spring

Roots suck the life from a metallic river of red

That springs from one cobble of a cobblestone road

With a roof for a floor

A wall for a door

An escape from your dreams

An expression of love, a hue of silent grey

Hate a fierce streak of v...

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Why are you running scared little maiden?

Why do you hide amongst the trees?

Do you believe your dreams are in tatters?

And that you’ve finally crumbled to your knees.

Are you sure you want to run little maiden?

Please take a pause whilst I hold your hand,

You’ll see then that running till your heart bleeds

Won’t help you navigate life or understand

You believe that sh...

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Sam quietly opened the study door.

Her stepfather was standing by his desk,

Rapt by a letter from the morning post

Looking near comically Chaplinesque

"You'll never get those filthy hands of yours

on what I've built, you despicable slag"

He was shouting loudly at the letter

"I'll finish you, you malevolent hag,"

From the desk, he took the long letter knife

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I thought we would be forever, together, better

Then any individual thrill, yet still

We overlooked each other

I thought that I would feel a happy chappy not crappy

Like I felt with previous lovers gone before, so sure.  

We subsequently unhooked from those others

Yet what is bizarre, we are, not far, 

We’re close at hand. Must we disband?

For this love has a deep...

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Oh toasted teacake

Whose spiced fruitfulness

buttered buns doth make

My taste buds, multitudinous.

Strawberry jam scooped

luxuriously spread,

Juiced raisins covered

Sweet blanket overhead.

Oh toasted teacake

soft baked, brown coated

slightly burnt domed hat

Adds texture, pleasantly noted.

A certain keenness

to repeat this pleasure

Like ...

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My England.

May I ask?

That when death calls,

You'll caress

this poet.

Where his shadow falls,

On his grave,

Lay a rose

of deepest red,

Shed, just one

single tear,

For your loyal dead,

Paupers grave

without cross

or marker stone.

Silent rest,

rest in peace

In your arms alone,

Entombed in

Blakes rhythmic

green and pleasant l...

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Symi

A small island of the Dodecanese

Island folk seem so eager to appease

Unhurried life puts us firmly at ease

Gently blown by the soft Aegean breeze

Symi

Archangel Michael of Panormitis

This monastery draws us, invites us

Somehow we acquire a monk to guide us

Lighting candles for those gone before us

Symi

With neoclassical coloured houses

Gift Shops, some bar...

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Fine mist,

On Scottish hills

(is like the fattened paunch

of a corpulent man,) it just

rolls down

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It's coming, I know it,

My final hours of life,

I have regrets

But I have no more strife,

My past stretched behind me

There is nothing ahead,

I'll be relieved when the time comes.

When I'm finally dead.

When that moment arrives

When finally I'm gone,

They'll say of me

His pitiful life, done,

He lived, he loved, he laughed,

Somewhat reluctantly.

Graspe...

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Proud, and oh so beautiful. 

The Peacock emerges monochromatically 

from surrounding flowers, to be reborn.

Nearby sepia swans encapsulate your beauty and your success.

Enhancing both energy and health 

All silhouetted by the bronzed-toned moon above

Leaves on vines show longevity in our devotion.

The winding chestnut-coloured dragon

wrapped loosely around my forearm 

en...

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Mr America,

Why do you shout?

You’re really a loudmouth.

That’s without doubt.

You scream patriotism from deep in your lungs.

At those with diverse traditions, an assortment of tongues,

In the land of the free, you incarcerate those

Less fortunate than most, those too easily disposed

Mr America,

Why do you gloat?

As you sail away to damnation,

In your open-top...

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Pathetically and silently, she sat 

In her chair, a frail old lady

Neither showing emotion nor self-pity

Rejected and ignored by the family she conceived,

Their faded pictures are framed on her wall.

But they are not coming soon.

Certainly not this week.

Their lives are now at such a pace.

There is no recognition that hers is concluding.

She sat 

A miserable, life-sca...

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Poetic similes and metaphors

They are just ungainly analogies.

The writing on the wall says Belshazzar.

The poets' gold turned to brass by alchemy.

Describing Guardsmen erect in their ranks

stood like the contents of a vesta box.

Or a prostitute on the street corner.

A marina where men sail up and dock.

A cloud is a cloud, however lonely.

Child of a man is still a girl o...

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No words,

No thoughts,

Just tears.

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One by one, it seems

Our joy from childhood dreams

quickly falls away.

Until the day

None of those dreams remain.

The red balloons

We let loose to fly

Those floating memories of our youth

Passing by, high in the sky

Our childhood days

Sometimes, misguided ways

They made us cry.

The laughter we had then

Beyond recapture

We will never live aga...

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On Sunday, August 31st, tragedy.

You came to our room, waking me.

"Diana is dead."

You said

Prince Charles is on his way to France.

Why are you giving me that sideways glance?

On Monday, September 1st, "Let's talk."

We're over. Love has walked

This is the end.

Let's just be friends.

In London, there's a one-minute silence.

Here, never-ending silent defiance.

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When the time comes and I must die,

(Unsurprisingly, there's no date for when).

Gathered family weep, may even cry.

For this life, lived and loved, amen.

Will I die lying in my bed?

Peacefully, restfully, within my home,

Will friends encircle my soft final breath?

Or slabbed in the morgue all alone.

I'd prefer to die in slumber.

My lover and I entwined, fa...

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Heaven, full of shooting stars, watched

while we lay close together on a sandy beach.

Wishes made that day may be cast away.

When no longer close, when we're out of reach

We'll surely blame one another.

For the closeness of our smother,

Then we may part.

Bittersweet tears may fall.

From our eyes to the floor

Promises sworn may be torn.

from hearts, and yet o...

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I'm sitting in this quiet shell,

I neither belong to it, nor it to me,

I want to lift up my head, just once,

Then sail away, be free.

My body though doesn't act the way

That other bodies really should,

Why is everything that I do in life

So wrong and never good?

Why does my Daddy shout so much?

Why does my Mummy cry?

Why can't I be like everyone el...

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Dear busy mister taxman

I trust that I find you well.

I hope you're sitting comfortably.

A story I have to tell.

It centres around the rebate.

You so kindly sent today.

It really is too kind of you.

To remember me this way

But wait... What is this I see?

It fills my soul with terror.

Because dear busy mister taxman

It seems you've made an error.

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Half a lager, half a larger,

Half a larger. Onward

into their bellies so fast.

Poured the six punters.

"Four more light ales they craved!"

“Charge a large gin!" he said.

Into their bellies in haste

Poured the six punters.

"Four more light ales !" They craved

Err, were men so ale'd?

Not though the barman knew

Someone overcharged.

Not them to make amends...

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If only I could find preconstructed words

Scattered amongst vocabularic sherds,

That could easily describe and characterise

That bright sparkle within your eyes,

For then the world may understand

That, which I know for sure first-hand,

For within those eyes,

All my future pleasure lies,

Deep steely blue pools of passion

Are not as cold as one may imagine,

Like ro...

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Summer morning, Nineteen Seventy,

Field study, Miss Skipworth's junior third,

Inspired location, unvisited

But silently, we listened, absorbed.

Amazed that Carr Dyke was Roman-built,

I had no knowledge and less inkling,

Imported empire goods transported,

From Nene valley up to Lincoln.

Engineered during Hadrian's reign,

Built fen waterway, the border wall,

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“I have a good mind”

No, you don’t

You bully, harrass, and cajole

But never with a good mind, 

Ever.

“You just sit there”

I’ll sit, but you dear father 

Can’t stop my mind from racing 

across the universe, to view

The wonders

“You’ll never learn”

You never teach, 

Or demonstrate clearly

What you ask is out of my reach

And my interest

“Why do you answer ...

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Travelled in London,

Rode the Picadilly line,

Deodorant's fine

If others spray, otherwise

There's no nasal protection.

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Lovers at a round table 

Experiencing alfresco Expresso,

Arguing so passionately at each other,

Their flailing arms demand the attention of the other,

Facial expressions accentuate each silent voice

Grimacing with gritted teeth, wide-eyed disbelief

Frantically fingers touch their face with force

Spelling words and phrases only they can share,

Some shock the reader but ...

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Floating gently above darkened clouds,

Looking down upon madding crowds,

Whistling wind and dripping rain,

See those people mightily strain

Against the boredom of their humdrum life,

A husband late home to his nagging wife

Who’s spent her day in effortful cleaning

Washing, cooking, all-day preening,

Ironing, polishing, occasionally resting,

Maintaining their home so both...

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Let's go for a wander

Anaconda,

What’s your wish?

Jellyfish,

Let's just have a gander

Salamander,

What shall we see?

Chimpanzee.

We’ll see what’s about 

Rainbow Trout,

Whether that's a little

Or even Axolotl,

Where shall we go?

Water buffalo

What about the beach?

Common Leech,

I don’t fancy that

Little brown bat,

How about the park?

Gre...

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Two bags of sugar

A pinch of ground black pepper,

Weight of the baby

Mother gave birth to that day.

(I've sure made up for it since).

Born on the Sabbath

Priests rejoiced at her bedside.

Six weeks early though,

Sagittarian archer

Not a horned Capricorn goat.

First hours without God

We both looked death in the eye,

Mum scarred by cancer,

I, tubed and...

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Many years ago

In a long-forgotten time,

I watched a Channel Four TV show,

I was hooked in episode one,

The endings had a certain style

Making me wait impatiently for next week,

I was gripped by the excitement

Needing to understand more.

Each character held and hid a secret

Plots had subplots galore,

I couldn’t always keep up,

So I took comfort in social ...

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Nothing assaults the senses like the chill air of a summer's evening,

Forearm follicles as erect as a pubescent boy's expectation of his young penis 

Or nipples hardening through your silken blouse. 

The smell of summer love when two bodies collide in passion

It has the warmth of the day yet exacerbated and put to fire by your sensual touch, 

Sweat from our movements and desire...

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A pebble thrown into a millpond displays delightful concentric circles

I have thrown countless pebbles, to no avail

What’s unfair should make you stronger,

I’m the sum of my life's successes, not my failures, 

A bicycle peddled, generates forward motion, faster and faster downhill,

I’ve pressed down firmly, I’m no more forward than I was before.

What’s unfair should make you...

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I will take your hand, please lead me from darkness, 

Living this tortuous love, every day,

I saw hurting myself as reasonably, to my mind, 

the only exit. 

But I was too much a coward, without your help

Each day my skin crawled, 

Infected by imaginary long-snouted Weevils

That left tiny footprints on my dry flaking skin,

Each print points forward

Mocking my decision to ...

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Just three little questions my dear friends,

I hope you can lend a hand,

Each scenario happened today,

And I still don’t quite understand.

If the square of the hypotenuse,

Is the sum of squares on either side,

How do you get an Articulated lorry,

Through a gate just 10 feet wide.

The calculated arc of a cannonball,

Hits square the castle wall, not the moat,

...

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