voices
so many voices
dressed up in words
so many tales
so many veils
the you in your ‘me’
is told to me in mine
exchange is no robbery
commensurate is the rhyme
ten thousand different characters
ten thousand different voices
say
give me yours and i’ll give you mine
that sting thing feeling
summer ate spring
a duckling ate midges
a magpie ate the duckling
stolen
there in black and white
is the plight of romance
at the edges it’s all midges
there’s the bloody sting
raw war raw war
it’s the eternal oxymoron
to stop war you have to go to war
well you started it
no i didn’t
i’m dead sure you did
anyway god is on both our sides
so we can’t lose in the end
take this bullet to heaven with you and ask
it’s over there camouflaged in mud blood mud
rs thomas
from across the border of his grave
his arrows pierce my heart
from across the fields of his thoughts
he opens up to me through a creaky gate
brushed with stars he said that tree was
as i simply sit under it in wonder
and wander longingly through his words
mister wonderful such an empty sobriquet
i think he would entreat
for it is by the pulling of the weave
that the tapestry yields its golden threads
as the saga unfolds from his limited time
it starts to rain and the wind picks us up
again his grave overflows as it will
in perpetuity is a comfortable phrase
social media
mute
the filling in a sandwich of platforms
the image in imagination
the invagination of a thought posted
in the chameleon of a reply my colours refracted
back the thought bounces unrecognisable
i can’t be bothered and yet i do
reply by
mute
muttering
remember that tough old man
the one with the gammy leg who used to swim
across the bay in the winter
well he’s dead i said
but they were dead or
mute
it might be a sign
a toothpick spits out a poem
and the napkin page is soiled
but unsigned
is something else i posted
mutatis mutandis
don’t you bloody dare
resurrection redacted
where redaction is changed into guns
rifling through meanings that were not meant
or not meant to last
but simply to imply by those lies
for explicitly was frowned upon
misinterpretation yawned wide
truth to be swallowed whole
mastication a fornication
the chewing of the cud of bovine excrement
not meant for the herd but for the polish
on the nose ring of the bull
led by the lanyard of the slaughterer
the hoofs clattering loud on the
high roads of the moors of fraternity
one after the other the lies were laid down
under the feet of the gadarene swine
at the top of the precipice of their time
for perspicacity was not for them
or to ask who knows best
for the answer would almost certainly
be redacted
steam genie
he went to the nursing home yesterday
today the upholstery cleaner arrived
painful memories erased
the photographs are polished bright
her tears blearing the shine
once he scored in the world cup
now he is playing extra time
we are all offside
he takes the penalty
three score years and ten
and ten and ten
the pump roars in the steam genie
like the crowds used to roar
arms raised he punches the sky
i want the toilet please
