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I Saw The End From The Start

veiled her blue calculating eyes

perplexing glances in the gloom

doubts pierced my needy soul

doomed before I left the room

 

sultry night in old San Francisco

anxious moon smearing the bed

mood like some jack in the box

doubt running amok in my head

 

woke to discover a basilisk stare

examining my rank imperfection

my body was never the greatest

where is the...

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Cold Flint Makes Fire

smiles so rare for her

not a welcoming face

fear in pale grey eyes

of warmth not a trace

 

appearances can fool

no semblance of fire

that beneath the skin

makes the mask a liar

 

stumbled into tinder

my chimney smoking

horned into bonfires

deception is stoking

 

inner magma outed

slow magnetic glow

mechanic love only

imagination can sow

 

...

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Haunted

dreams call on me rarely now

my visitors are mostly regrets

with gifts of grief and remorse

what conscience never forgets

 

the love I too often spurned

women I so routinely forsook

bad decisions or no decision

benefit from a backward look

 

yet the past is a willl o' the wisp

easy to install ideal outcomes

where everything's simpler, a

perfect tune hindsight...

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Empty Packets

streets are replete with them

like damp discarded jackets

mixed with leaves, fag-ends,

the silence of empty packets

 

emptied of crisps, milky bars

tampons cigarettes and pizzas

in trails of rustling emptiness

their hollowed echo greets us

 

my packet got emptied long ago

when she plundered my heart

I'm blown about the icy streets

itinerant and decaying stree...

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Decibels

Carol's a novice bell-ringer

campanology is her forte

she pulls my bell with gusto

at night especially naughty

 

she couldn't leave me alone

never enjoyed a silent night

my bell was at her mercy, a

fast Treble Bob her's by right

 

in the bell-tower she excelled

Christmas peals lit the snow

triples at the end of her rope

enough to lay a reverend low

 

tr...

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Sick Santa

social distancing scorned

masks impede his beard

visor scares the reindeer

spooking as he steered

 

medics shave his whiskers

off with red festive attire

reindeer pining for Santa

cough softly at their byre

 

tube down Santa's chimney

no more season's greetings

in a coma Christmas begets

few hale or hearty meetings

 

drones take Santa's place

icy pla...

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A Better Christmas

so, a time for warm memories?

fond loved ones from the past?

Christmas 2019 one to forget

I thought it might prove my last

 

parrot strangled in trimmings

wife, shopping after a row, got

took short, skidded off the path

tree trimmed by a snow plough

 

house got burgled Christmas Eve

at which your festive spirit palls

he nicked the replacement spruce

complete ...

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Oh Yes It Is!

Christmas is for pantomime

that was, until recent events

these days you stay at home

at least if you have any sense

 

traditional roll-call of villains

fight between good and bad

left you going home dizzy, or

on occasion fearful and sad

 

magic at the theatre's over

sick panto's in the very air

lungs and nature in conflict

Big Bad Wolf out of his lair

 

...

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Mutant Heart

it used to be fine between us

sexual habits taken as read

a cup of hot cocoa after telly

then off up the stairs to bed

 

she never really bothered me

if I was tired, she'd go to sleep

me dropping off with frank relief

no need to count any sheep

 

Black Friday that started her off

sex manuals on-line, going cheap

eyes glowing, her juices flowed,

her demands le...

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Night On A Rainbow

arches and keystone

without one they fall

life sustained by you

or I had nothing at all

 

skies at time of damp

arch of hues on show

feast with brittle rays

grist for my rainbow

 

refraction bends light

you twisted my heart

with love's pot of gold

vowed we'd not part

 

rainbow but an illusion

your promise the same

capricious the crescent

not ho...

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Mallard Days

a year now since she died

life never been the same

loving eyes that llit my life

till she fell and got lame

 

her back end had collapsed

lost control of her bladder

lay there still in the garden

never saw anything sadder

 

vet had to give her the jab

said she'd suffer no pain

ashes rest on my dresser

but I'll not see her again

 

all I have is her leathe...

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She Felled My Tree

before doing a runner

she cut down my tree

pine needles all over

festive debris to see

 

fairy dead on the rug

each bauble smashed

lights cables tangled

my Christmas dashed

 

should have twigged it,

axe-heads lit her eyes

our rapport splintering

ate my last mince pies

 

a forest of complaints

calling me dead wood

unhappy with my log

called my p...

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Cracks

raining cats and dogs outside

Ron's too heavy, nearly fainting

ceiling's cracked and peeling

needs plastering and painting

 

never enjoyed sex, orgasms

gave me  not a second look

up there that web of cracks

is not unlike reading a book

 

he's pumping like a good 'un

I nearly dropped off to sleep

surveying spidery fissures

a bit like counting sheep

 

mem...

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Two Cats

Oscar is the light of her life

in bed she nips off his ticks

drowns them in water, she's

dispensed with other pricks

 

but Oscar meets his nemesis

she's spurned him for Teddie

he's well-bred and better-hung

soon they were going steady

 

locked out of her bedroom

Oscar hear animal sounds

tackle cut off long ago, now

his mistress out of bounds

 

hissing a...

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Bubbles

they were innocent at school, bubbles

you got the tin and wand and blew

wet globules flew in the playground

we cheered at the squadrons we grew

 

they hit you in the face but harmless

we ran madly trailing clouds of glory

each bubble with its personal rainbow

to embroider some memory or story

 

trouble was that strong soapy smell

a reminder of the pain of bath nigh...

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bubblesrainbowsoapyglobesserfdomsbubble-kitwhite coats

Chains In Your Eyes

women always a problem

never knew my own mind

happy to get what I could

you the best I could find

 

chains rattle in your eyes

I'm drowning in your malice

fate led me to your clutches

drink this poisoned chalice

 

you left me black and blue

sub-human and perplexed

wondering where you were

what punch coming next

 

little self-esteem to begin

you turne...

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Back Story

epics very scurrilous

but I took them all in,

crazy tales of passion

made mine seem thin

 

lovers by the dozen,

flights to every shore,

my ups and downs

a comparative bore

 

the facade collapsed,

your name's phoney,

landlord dropped by

called you Miss Toni

 

you talk up love but I

know not who you are,

little Miss Nobody or

exotic wandering sta...

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Smeared

you wanted it so I went on the scent,

you said it made you feel like a queen,

Christmas at that Knightsbridge store,

most expensive emporium I'd ever seen

 

perfume is fine when embellished by love,

every atom of the odour a tender reminder 

of loving moments with your chosen one

with whom you couldn't wish to be kinder

 

it's when the passion cools and she waltzes o...

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smearedperfumescentlovepassionfragrancespong

Stranger

was lovely last Christmas

hugs amid a snow storm

face so bright and caring

mind in such good form

 

sharp, as bright as a pin

enjoying tinsel and pies,

no hint of grief to come,

warmth yet in grey eyes

 

change, a new confusion

not sure of time or day,

struggled finding words,

shopping, lost her way

 

I know his face, where...?

why cant I remember?

...

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Forced

its a far cry from Bucharest

in this dark and earthy shed,

thinks of her tearful mother

the man she's shortly to wed

 

draughts slice wooden walls,

rats scuttering in the hay-loft,

rubbing her hands for warmth

tells herself not to be so soft

 

slim candles shadow the gloom,

bloke appears in muddy boots,

shoving his wheelbarrow in a

mini-forest of sprouting ro...

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Dirty Heart

nails so immaculate

quiff by top coiffeur

works hours in gyms

voice a soothing purr

 

swims in hot cologne

really looked the part

nurtured in the mire

harbours a dirty heart

 

easy to smile and preen

glad-hand the unaware

suppress my defences

enticed me into his lair

 

had his way, I felt silly

cheated by this creep

trudged home deflated

felt m...

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Strays

far end of the graveyard

cant find it for tall weeds

but why did I come here?

thorn pricks, leg bleeds

 

this grass needs cutting

Billy always was a liar

there's daffodils dead

more blood from a briar

 

should have put on a coat

hurt me when he strayed

its starting to snow again

not only me he betrayed

 

trips on a trailing bramble

marble knocks her ...

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So Easily

her smile came so easily

before I could even blink,

she made my heart race

brought me to the brink

 

dress slipped off so easily

mysore silk of jade green,

the body of a svelte and

molten Myanmar queen

 

her love given so easily

from a brimming chalice,

no passion ever rivalled

what oozed from Alice

 

slipped away so easily

with barely a mumur,

pe...

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Queues

Jimmy would stand in queues

he had nothing better to do

it helped him pass the time

busier than any church pew

 

he might pick the odd pocket

at girls rubbing and grinning

on Saturday go to confession

confess to a vicar his sinning

 

mam told him to wrap up warm

made sandwiches for his belly

strange folk he met in queues

impatient grown up and smelly

 

...

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Mistletoe In The Cellar

conceived in a cellar, of

a Tommy home on leave,

mother waving mistletoe,

shortly she would grieve

 

official dad inert upstairs

exempt due to his arches,

Tommy back to trenches

bullets or forced marches

 

killed in action in the mud

in my blood's a war hero,

official dad a profiteer,

moral fibre less than zero

 

the duality in mistletoe,

fertile of ...

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bloodcellarconceiveddeathgrievelovemistletoetrenches

Love Bank

round every corner's a food bank

but what about people like me?

my table creaks with provisions,

I'm never short of salmon for tea

 

its a love bank my heart needs

somewhere to nourish my soul,

fill my breast with fondant fancies

its been far too long on the dole

 

I dream of hot charitable staff

eager women dressed to kill,

piling my basket with promise

red ...

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Nappies

in a wheelchair now, she's

a shadow of her history,

crippled us with lust in

the pomp of her mystery

 

to out-patients in my taxi,

whispers: "is it you Fred?"

of times when I loved her

immortal, not half-dead

 

dropped me for a broker

always cute and naughty,

oozed sex, a Lana Turner

mercenary and haughty

 

begs me to take her to bed,

purely for old ...

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A Run In The Park In The Rain

we met in roundhay park,

she was walking her hound,

fettered with a muzzle, the

dog barely made a sound

 

that was half a life-time ago,

long defunct that labrador,

I'm the one on a short lead,

I rarely talk, let alone roar

 

personality's behind bars,

independence gone west,

castrated, house-trained,

where obedience is best

 

a daily run in the garden,

...

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Debs And Amy R.I.P.

I rue the day we ever met, for

she never knows when to stop,

her warehouse space enormous

she's a twenty-four-hour shop

 

my paramour Alma is an amazon

one that always delivers on time,

her supply chain quite amazing

while she knows prices to a dime

 

yet there's a fatal flaw in big Alma

true, she makes out without fail,

but she's a sad blow-up doll when

you'...

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The Girl I Sold My Horse For

rambling wide was what I did

saloons and bars near and far,

winds alive behind my back

horizons lit by a guiding star

 

I never thought much different

till she caught my horse's rein,

she taught me to settle down,

didn't need my horse's mane

 

she's sassy and bright and clever

I grew to love the kegs she wore,

she's the mother of my kid now

she's the girl I s...

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