haughty
a quiver
above the river a spider
torn between the corn
and the flow
a fine strand of a sun web
catches a dream’s meandering
on the hillside a castle
out at sea a boat
now where was i
about to cast this stone
into the thread of thought
aught i be naughty
just saying
the king and queen arrive at royal ascot
the king’s grandson starts at eton
just saying
my late father left school at fourteen
an intelligent man left uneducated
just saying
my ancestors fought for this land
then i’ll fight you for it
he said
i’m just saying
which one
there dad ~ i told them
on reading a poem about james joyce
remember barley sugar
those sticks of platted sunshine
licked in a childhood’s passing
well this poem is
that stick of platted sunbeams
licked through the flickering leaves
of past smiles smeared my dear
by the sweet blear of tears
that read me
whirled cup
the world cup runneth over
surely oh my goodness and mediocrity
will bore me all the days of my strife
and i will dwell in the house of
oh my good lord not another match
forever
social mediocrity
when a post invites me
to do this or that
i never do
this or that
and that’s a fact
when a post does not
invite me to do
this or that
i always find i want to reply
with a poem
about this or that
a poem that was not a fact
but in reply
it was
they found a new whale graveyard
deep beneath the sea
unimaginably deep to you and me
the Diamantina fracture
don’t ya know
and lunching there are brittle stars
and bone-boring worms
and chemosynthesis-based bivalves
so now ya know ya know
that the graveyard round the corner
just up the road from you and me
is pretty mundane monumentally
plain dead dull you see
but ya know that don’t ya
know why
because they found a new whale graveyard
deep beneath the sea
i have a sinking feeling
that it’s not for you and me
and that’s a pity
p
i
t
y
senescence’s sentence
aging is the buttering of breaths
the leaf fluttering at the end of the top branch
the lyre of the sun on a web’s dusting
call the sap back and it will laugh
a dry eye never will weep a smile
hands held together tighten around
a clock’s chime
the pendulum’s lullaby
sinks
well i never ever
but there is only one you
no one else could write your poem
never ever
ever
so don’t undo yourself
and deny the world your poem
there is someone who will read it
and say
well
i never
ever
D Day D Day dad
what did you do
on D Day dad?
how many died
on D Day dad?
what fun they had
in my Boy’s Own comics
on D Day dad
can I be beached on
D Day dad?
oh why not!? why not!!??
you are so horrible dad
I could kill you sometimes
D Day D Day D Day dad
what’s that you said
that you are dead and
you died on D Day D Day dad
look beyond
dust suspended
in the rays of a rising sun
through the undulating clouds
a beam oblivious
to the machinations of men
so rest your mind beyond
beyond seeing
beyond the dust
of a rising thought
through you
lost you
call not your name call
poem poem
ring the bells of time
social mediocrity
you are ‘unsocial’
social media hands me this sobriquet
for not conforming with the idea
of unconformity as the perfect bait
to pull scrolling minds
into joining together
in my un-being
never caught by the mob of their reposts
i am unsocially running free
a feather in the wind for
the raptor has ruptured their rapture
their blood runs free
look at your hands
look the blood smeared on your screens
blood-brothers and -sisters
welcome to the club
it has nails in
un-less
social media
thank you to nobody
for nothing
thank you to nobody
for everything
thank you to everybody
for everything
thank you to everybody
for nothing
mix and match to suit
everything and nothing
for
everybody and nobody
un-
social media
mmm🤔
repost?
or
riposte?
