The nurses said there were ghosts dragging robes in the under-storey; they said they heard them as night drew down – an unseen hand on the door, a feather on a face. The hospital is gone, its long corridors falling before machines; scalpels and stainless forceps taken from the empty wards. When it closed, the…
Month: May 2018
loft
loft rain piano* loft piano cloud piano drops on glass piano cluster and slip in piano scale on the edge of winds piano rain on sea piano eastern beach 11 february 2018 *’piano’, as a musical term meaning ‘soft, subdued’, from the italian *as in ‘piano(forte)’, the musical instrument from…
la rabbia *
for an uncle Never mind sometimes I never answer you. I’m not obliged, even now to respond drop my pen when I hear a foot-fall on the step; or a drum upon – like it was a mouse – the tablecloth: ladies, gentlemen, some discreet caller. When I got home after…
Window On Life
Was he cold as life left? That blanket didn’t do much. Drawn as it was, just to the knee. And the window was open, to let in the south’s breath. They are all here: The Forgotten: the war hero, his mind in the Spitfire, raking fire up the line, teeth set in a blazing low…
imploding
imploding the sky this dusk wreathed with din and squawk of mynah birds packed in by the dozen some dropping out fluttering upward back into the scabbards of dark under the fronds of the phoenix palm safe as houses there in the dry out to sea rangitoto holding to that line under which it darkens…
Thunder On The Line
He works alone now, hands puffed and slow. He stands rod stiff, trousers buckling at the hem. He is at the carriage, unlocking its secrets. It is old as he is old; out of service. Here, they judge him well; he lent a hand when no-one would. His pals were there, too – and just…
Under the Sheltering Sky
Rows of phoenix palms at a national border, The Somalian-Ethiopian wall by a highway near a city, English-built in rocks like Cornwall, The white resident smiles and explains in friendly talk That life was good anyway. A small death ahead and we go on towards At cruising speed in a beamer, The palm trees at…
Strange Yet Familiar
Something was unseen, and no-one knew it was there. Peoples continued their existence without it, as they didn’t know it existed. Sometimes, they were very close to it and had no inkling of its’ prescience. It was maybe behind the wall, under the earth, beneath the floorboards, Behind the Stars, within a tree, deep where…
Solipsist-Nihilist
I am placed in my surroundings, I see and touch cars, chairs, pens and persons, This forms a scene, but not a picture, a scenario. I exist in Time, here there is many an assumption, That Time is a point, a one-thing, an unseen absolute. I interact with my scenario, and it changes me, I…
Miracle Drugs
Jesus at the pharmacy, Jesus at the lab, Jesus baked some drugs one day and put them in a bag. Jesus was a drugstore cowboy, Jesus had an arm, Jesus shot it up one day and kept away from harm. Jesus was a chemist, Jesus baked a pill, Jesus gobbled goofballs when he was…
Methaphor for Ennui
Is this a nice day? It looks like night. Was that really a superette? It might have been a family’s home. Where are we going? We’re driving around all day. Why do you have a car? I’d rather have a bike. What do you mean by that? I aren’t a frigging genius. Who was that…
If I
If, If I, If I ever, If I ever was, If I ever was not, If I ever was not or, If I ever was not or any, If I ever was not or any thing, If I was ever anything or not, This would have happened.