There’s nothing so pretty

As shrimping net city

Where rock pools are tempting

And hermit crabs charm

In gingham and sandals

With sand between our toes

A spade and a bucket

Held in freckled arms.

The grannies are wiry -

Running down to the ripples

A chorus of children

To left and to right.

As the gulls wheel and deal

On their pasty patrol

Read and leave comments (4)

It seems too unlikely.

Little girl, pink frock, barefoot

wandering through a glade

following a peacock.

There’s no-one with her.

Just this sapphire creature

at her side.

Putting down our sandwich lunch

worried, we approach.

“Where is your mummy?”

The peacock disappears.

“Over there” she gestures

unconcerned.

Tells us he...

Read and leave comments (4)

The boy on the bus has eyes like fishes

not dead cod eyes but

perfectly elliptical

fish shaped

slanting.

His father is old, his mother

wears sensible shoes.

An only child

alarmed by noise, counting solar panels

obsessed by bus timetables.

“What’s that?” to everything

clutching at mother when a branch

clatters on the roof

or...

Read and leave comments (6)

There’s no room in my tent for you

Only space enough for me

My feet poke out quite brave

The rest of me hidden away.

Bees buzz, grass tickles my toes

That’s all of the world I need

If my tent had a big iron lock

I’d lock it to keep you out.

I’ve got crayons and a big book

And sandwiches in a tin

And I don’t have to let you talk

And I don’t...

Read and leave comments (14)

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...

Read and leave comments (7)

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...

Read and leave comments (8)