Hit

I got an email today from a coral
wanting to know why I don't have a car
I replied it is none of your business
blooming nosy crustacean

but corals aren't the type to let things lie
three phone calls, two texts
and registered delivered letter
later
I received a cheque from his mates
on the barrier reef
so I can buy an SUV

but I'm not that sort of bloke
I sponsored a rhino i...

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Rememberance

the doctor says, 'your baby is not alive'
yeah I know
but it's the missus I'm worried about now

the Simpsons play on the TV in the side room
but you don't laugh
instead the missus lets out a wail
that no actress can reproduce
no cliche ridden bullshit will let you hear
no poetic crap about darkness
or pretendy metaphor nonsense

the fact is
that it's not what you th...

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First Meeting

I follow the crowd pulled by curiosity.
The day is hot, even for morning it's hot.
The Jordon shimmers through the reeds, cold green,
licking the foot prints at the water's edge
into flatness. He waits for us, glowing,
on the far bank, hand in welcome to cross.
The new sun dazzles, but some, bright blinded,
enter the water. The splashing of feet dulls
as they reach midst...

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A Moment of Tension

Amidst the bracken, ferns, the spreading birch,
we find a red brick, half buried. Not much
of a find. Digging it with your toe perched
on point, I trace a faded denim stitch
of your knee length skirt, to a dead nettle.

This morning, spreading toast with marmalade
we talked of little, preferring kettle's
song to accompany the rustling crack
of nylon jackets, rucks...

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Musing In Ilkley Cemetery

No more on the hill the Middleton clan,
     now resting apart in municipal plot.
He to the left with the Romans and Catholics,
     she to the right among Protestant stock.

He passes his time amongst sisters and Irish,
     she spends her days with the cream of the mill.
And were they to rise, and meet on the pathway,
     they could look through the Ash t...

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 Dusk
out beyond the samphire beds
    muddied shoes muddied legs
hang expectant over bridge’s edge
    dangling for crabs

saltmarsh ditch with water lapping
    seagulls hang with wings unflapping
sunset pink with all the trappings
    frame this gilded scene

beneath serene North Sea sky
    big brother emits triumphant cry
for mother with her net to try
    coordinate the catch
...

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Cowt Leaves

dreak sun breke shap
yon dale frost
yolk hird whit wurn

plunt t'gin map
blit spar cowt
t'out fire

heft sky barwake
an' sigh
drip t'aft nowt on

snow ript hird
blue nikt
yon Queen bayns

all winter rain
'tin t'air
hooked eyen shut

dreak frock
bayn virgin hills
nost an' nost an' rast

t'river

The Blue Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I...

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After Satie

hoping - waiting
hoping
waiting
     softly opens the promise of spring

waiting - sighing
hoping
waiting
     surely blackbirds in echo will sing

     - now - yon -

   gone

waiting
waiting
sighing
     soon sunlight will flourish on field
hoping
     field - in the daylight earth treasure will yield
yon - sighing -
      day

   comes
lonely for someone w...

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She finds I more entrapped
in amber, on her shelf among her novels.
Trophy books of sappy learning,
enforce, preserve, her want of faith.

Smooth to the touch
each spine unbroken
relents it's place
upon her shelf.

Rests for coffee
upon the table,
unread,
unknown, it listens,

to committee exchanges, reportage,
repartee, lapsang souchong,
agree with me, brittle built

petty need...

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South southeast, veering wet,
poor, Whigfield tufted sheep
craw chewed, styled to taste

last year's chic. Yellow green
sods, wind blown, too big boots,
head swollen, thistled through.

Crow puddled islands, apple
beaked, nasal juice, laps up
the scaled legs. Trips unwary

sea grey, oven ready, mitten
warm, gamboling lamb, good.

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Come Leaves Burst

Trait o'er sun breaks the dale.
Frost's house glows, cream egg
polished tooth, candle mass, whey

over trees. The stamen daisy
windows direct, connect, stripe
the barwaken sky dripping

rainbow strait watercolour
melting snow blue. Cold, rapt,
enwrapped cold, old night pulls

the Queen, who names the vale,
to heave all winter's rain,
hooked, eyed, crochet quavere...

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Unkin, rejected,
steel
to the rock sky.

Tribute, collected,
club
eleven dead suns.

Ascending repented
stairs,
culverine comet

hobbles, unlamented:
taxes
one thousand stars.

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Mary Berry, pulled in tight,
knees together, face alight
to the tablet in her hand. Gears
grind, commuting daily, she fears
the woman to her right
demurely dressed, may catch sight
of the word Can Upset Nursing Team.

Robin Buffchest, alpha male,
sets his points to grease the rail,
enter through the female arts
of parts, unconnected to the heart;
which pulse, quail, and never fail
to ...

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