Bunny Foot

Your rabbit foot
no longer brings you luck
your expensive lighter
ran out of gas
the place we used to sit
burned down
you were using matches again
we are stupid little broken things
scratchy little niggles on
The smooth skin
the red raw patch that itches
all through the neon night
you lost your lucky charm
we had to walk home
stumbling drenched
bunnies in the rain
I found the bunny foot
down the back of the sofa
and I found your wedding ring.

POEM OF THE WEEK

JABBERWOCKY

Lewis Carroll

(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
  And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
  The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
  Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
  And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
  The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
  And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
  The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
  He went galumphing back.
"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
  Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
  He chortled in his joy.



`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
  And the mome raths outgrabe.

SORRY, SUPERMAN, YOU'RE TOO LATE.

Finally broken

Hopelessly saved

Brutally born

Sullenly saved

Helplessly wavered

Silently sodden

Gratefully dispatched

Hero not included

AUTOPSY/ REQUIEM

Open up the chest cavity, a Y shaped incision from each shoulder

Your scalpel moves across my chest and down to my belly button

Jump back, astonished, as the heart that used to sing you songs crumbles

To black dust in your hands as you pick it up to weigh it.

There is nothing to take a blood sample from- no heart, no blood. 

Just the dusty dance of the quiet, eerie music of my special mass. 

The candles cast a shadow on the thirteenth century church at midnight,

Where freaks in goulish masks come to wail and weep

You are dressed in your finest funeral regalia,

Your sword resting on your shoulder, a tear makes a river in your pancake,

The horses neigh and stomp

Their breath sending blasts of steam into the frozen air

Their black and silver plumes tremble as they nod their noble heads

The music swells from inside the church, a bell tolls to welcome me home. 

There is Love.

I gently ask your name,

As we rest in beaded corner

We are bruised and shaken
Like small boats in a storm

 You are the bitter winter

Lost to the velvet night

Eyes like a vacant throne,

I breathe, 'My Precious'

I see the wall of pain your nightmares build around you

And in the dark a guardian angel walks beside you

And when his wings unfold

There is love.

We collide and mix like sand and water

Lost in grief's embrace
You are the brittle twigs of Winter's hangover

A dying star, a handsome gargoyle

I find you trembling in jewel encrusted corners

I hold you frozen hand

And whisper, 'My Precious'

I see the wall of flames as Heaven falls around you

And bathed in light an angel wraps his arms around you,

And when his wings unfold

There is Love. 

            We are the Alpha and the Omega

We hold the dusk and bring the dawn

With every twisted step

We breathe together

Entwined, we are the Earth
We are the sky
We know each others hearts
Like a favourite song

We whisper, 'Precious'

I see the destruction that in this prison binds you

And in your darkest hour an angel walks behind you
And when his wings unfold,

There is Love.

Loose Change (A collaboration with Nigel Griffin)

   Change in my pocket

It's annoying

I've nowhere to put it

Getting rid of-

Spending

Not to use it

Is a waste 

I don't like waste 

I'm a war child. 

Angel

And in the darkest hour that night does bring,

An Angel forged in brightest light does sing;

On leaving Earth, does fly beside you, Dear,

And guide you up to Heaven 'neath her wing. 

The colours of Venice

I can see the colours

I have always been able to

Every word has a colour,

Every sound.

Agnes is a vibrant blue,

Venice has a colour.

She is orange as a beacon

Calling us to discover her

glittering collection of knick knacks

Gathered from the joys of life

People walk by, chatting

their words throwing

bursts of colour into the air

like little fireworks above their heads

Johann has his camera

We wrap our arms around each other

Smile into the lens

Johann's laugh emits little sparks of

lilac and bright purple

I grab her hand, we start to run

faster and faster

The colours swirl around us

A rainbow mist

We run alongside a wedding boat

Bride and groom and brightly robed guests

sending streams of blues, pinks and greens into the air

as they laugh

We throw rose petals

They dance through the air like fairies to land on the water

Breathlessly we collapse

Cheeks flushed, eyes shining.

As the dusk falls

A warm cloud of red fills the air.

Dolphins

Swimming side by side, In a dream

The water a glorious heliotrope

Spraying cooling my skin,

We slow down, pick up and start again

I would be a fixture in your life

Should you decide to return to shore

But I know the open sea is now your home

 You don't come home much, anymore

When you were home,

You took up shelter in my heart

A cave where we would hide, our getaway,

A dolphin's kiss for every lonely day. 

Gossip

     What we heard

Was not what he said, She said.

Nor was it what they said he said she said,

Nor what he said they said she said, okay?

It started as a whisper, a loving word between them,

A sweet little blossom

That turned into the biggest, ugliest tree with

Dark twisted roots

It’s not what he really said to her because then she would not be so upset

So I think what we heard was probably just someone’s own sick version of events.

What really happened was…

Look, you didn’t hear this from me.