Bought,

imagining her face

her smile

a butter dish

from Derbyshire

the cow on the lid

painted cheerfully

is sat on a creamy base

licks of grass growing up its sides

 

Wrapped

in gossamer tissue

taped at the edges

so as not to give away

its contents

beautiful

held

tightly

carefully

all the way home

sandwi...

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When I was in my seventh year of heaven

white china horses galloped on the path,

moss was in the meadow,

goldfish flicked tails deep in the pond.

 

Herder to my lead sheep

I hid beneath the lilac tree

crushed blackcurrant buds,

made playgrounds for worms.

 

I discovered that lead has a smell

and worms can never play.

But I liked worms

An...

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I'm a walking holocaust

Hiroshima in my head

How can a small piece of flesh accomadate so much affliction?

Virulent predecessors ravage my veins

No matter how much blood trickles from these wounds

you won't go away,

Black box for a brain

If i crash, will it go away?

These penetrating negative thoughts..

 

Serrated claws on a blackboard

the images in m...

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Ah, that old chair, weakened from many 'talks' previous to this one,

He started to speak while the others observed me, too professional and ignorant to reach me,

"Have you seen anything?" he said,

I was seven, i had seen alot of things,

Sympathetically, he added, "Do you know what i'm asking you?"

How stupid of him to percieve me as a child,

"Yes" i said, "i'm not a chil...

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HEY! FATSO!

It was a spring-loving day.

YEAH! PORKY!

So early the sun shone deeply warm.

CHOPCHOPCHOP!

Across the fields an easy wind sighed

Fragrant with cherry blossoms.

PIMPLEFACE!

Her bare feet disturbed light eddies of dust.

HEADLIIIGHTS!

Around her thick long hair a red sash glowed.

She felt very beautiful.

...

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The reality of an external life of perdition from the womb is purposefully impervious to the memory This is where gratefulness truly stems A postcard picture of a view of eight embryo's howling in indescribable pain is too much for some to observe Catapulted around like unwanted withered leaves from a tree that once sustained them Raked up by a life of constant negativity and despondenc...

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She went to gather apple blooms all in the month of May,

An eager child who dearly loved a warm and sunny day -

                    an eager child who dearly loved

                                     a warm and sunny day.

Quite unaware of noise and dust that thinly filled the air

She skipped along the gravel path without a thought or care -

                    s...

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Along the pretty Pembrokeshire coast,

Under a sun that shone for ever,

We galloped over emerald cliffs.

Both holding imaginary reins,

Paula and I made spurring noises

To mounts that were supposed to be there.

Our families met while caravanning,

We decided to all tour together.

Big brothers enjoyed their own adventures.

A younger sister still napped af...

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You think poor is…

One car not two

semi, not detached

the right school

the wrong brand

the wrong label.

 

I think poor is…

Tide-lines

thick enough to pick at

cardboard soles

in shoes with holes

and stains that don’t

wash clean.

 

Together

we know poor is…

the curl of a lip

in a hostile world,

the shame

of not fittin...

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In a stony cold house, many years ago now
Lived a family as happy as fate would allow.
Though leaking the roof, with cracked window pane
And open to elements like wind and the rain.
No bolt on the door, no lock and no chain.
Nothing to steal , no nor nothing to gain.
The children were happy. They ran wild and free.
I remember it well, for the eldest was me.

...

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I recall the rain

Crying into my dreams

No charabanc for me

No trip to the sea

 

Squalling

 

The gusting wind scattered my broken heart

All ways like grains of sand

My bucket and spade

Laid

Hand in hand upon my bedroom floor

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Dusk in Northumberland

 

I cannot throw away this faulty photograph

wonder if mother peeled off that oval sticker,

the one I remember:

Boots pronouncement of defects

on red eyes, on the ghosts of double exposures,

Now half forgotten

 

Framed by the stone walls scaling hills

I didn’t know that my great grandfather built or

the skill that made them stan...

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Sunny yellow sharps bin
by the sofa side,
blue and green, the bruises,
upon my beaten hide,
dirty orange on sodden sheets
where, in the night, i lay
when Black came in and
ruined me and took my youth away.
the shameful red that
burns below has never left me yet,
Only lessened by the grey
of it's deadened coverlet.


 

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One lovely cool night in the ovens of August, Mum said,

‘Children, sleep in tomorrow. The heat’s drained us all.’

Oh, joy and excitement!  Not to get up at seven!

The richness of privilege when you weren’t even sick!

 

We went to bed early, my sisters and I, and giggled for

hours,  milking the marrow of : You can sleep late.

But Nan, who was two, dropped off like a s...

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With impatient expectation

little faces change expression.

laughing alongside a highway of boredom,

chasing endless vanishing points.

 

When tall people break promises

towers of disappointment rise up,

provoking storm clouds from fairytale skies.

Unwished for lessons arrive on punctual lines.

 

At story time imaginations float like dandelion seeds

S...

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Dinosaurs dug themselves into the rock,

but the Larnimans, though they have come

from a world far off grown unbearably hot,

are here now - and they're missing their mum.

 

The Larnimans dwelt on a distant planet

somewhat tiny in dimension.

Big fish in the pond they used to inhabit,

here their size escapes your attention.

 

One eye that glows like burning ...

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first memory

wanting something

I couldn’t have

 

out with grandma

saw a toy dog

grey and dirty

lying in the gutter

I wanted him

 

and grandma

my accomplice

took him home

to her flat

and let me play

with him

 

mum came back 

from having

her hair done

little dog was seen

 

for the first time

my mot...

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Here in my childhood

wearing robes my mother chose for me

I play; I grow; I learn how to please

 

Here in my childhood

wearing robes my teachers chose for me

I grow and play, learn how to appease

 

Here in my childhood

wearing robes I earned and chose for me

I travel the world with a 'hold-all'

 

Here in my childhood

we walk; my love, my life ...

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Enticed, gazing through criss-cross fencing

at Preston Road station platform.

Ignoring the fierce, frightening through trains,

rushing past his feet,

and British Rail on the far tracks.

He watched the common red ones,

with flared carriage bottoms,

waited for the rare, pale red ones,

with oval end windows, and

the very rare brown ones,

with delicious slam...

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Hi All and Happy New Year!

Following on from the Space competition which ran over November/December by Paul Blackburn I am now going to follow with this month’s prize and competition. I know I’m starting it a little late in the month but you lot are so inspired I’m sure you’ll come up with some amazing stuff in 3 weeks...

The rules as much the same as they have been so far:

 

1....

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She sent me out into the world,

But before she did she made sure I had breakfasted.

She sent me out into the world,

But before she did she filled my lunch box.

She sent me out into the world,

But for me tea she prepared a banquet,

Gil and Benjamin broke my fast,

So though I knew the revolution would not be televised

I saw a poet could be hero in my Mother’s...

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Skinned knees

Tall trees

 

Scuffed shoes

Many a bruise

 

The first kiss

Curfews to miss

 

School days

The suns blaze

 

Where did it all go wrong?

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