here’s a prompt reply
you offer me a prompt
when
to a poet
the whole world is a prompt
forever is an instant
#hashtag
isn’t that the mutton cloth
that an engineer uses
to clean the oil from hands
that have been beneath
the engine of life
resuscitation is in reverse
now there’s a prompt for you
a-systole is a long line
in stanza of lines
queuing to form a circle
to watch the children skip over it
kids ~ well they asked you
kids!
we lined up the snails
and waited for a bus
to squash death
onto a steep learning curve
as we hung upside down
from the railings of don’t you dare
what we talked about
was turning life on its head
but we didn’t understand
why blood seeping
through grassed knees
was memory’s long smile
STRAIN spotting
STRAIN spotting
tearing the underlined pages
from the kama sutra
sidling the steam train
as electric arrives with its
lubricated driveshafts
vibrating off the rails
of a change of track
what is the point
of the red signals
the menu
in the dining car
is awesome
but the plates are cold
euphemisms slither
as the lights flicker
and our steward walks past
with the drinks we ordered
empty glasses
the sparkling water is still still
but never mind the strain
the destination is unchanged
hot jotting
the writing
has melted from the wall
it is the end of us all
at the end of the dance
of the seven veiled shenanigans
it is plain for all to see
the last old tree
flowers like you’ve never seen
or will ever again
put the kettle on
i am hot and dry and
i crave just one more sip
treatwave
there were hot days
days that were so hot
we wore our bathers
outside in the street of look
no sea
not even a hose pipe
not one grownup
not knowing what to do
we waited until it cooled
then we dressed it up
as a childhood treat
and put it in the box called
remember the hot days
the longest night
summer’s window opens wide on
a motorbike forever going nowhere
uphill a dog is barking antiquity and
all the gargoyles of nuisance are
spouting of blather’s growling
long pink clouds on a powderpuff blue
are shredding in captain scarlet
in the heat of reentry
rehearsing is failing to sleep
again rings again and again
the window is shuttered
has spluttered its last say on
a breath drawn of sorrow for
here’s a watery moon of no abode
arrested of time’s insouciance
