Wraith

We all reach that point in life

Where Halloween holds no magic

The ragged clothes and haggard looks

The pale of face and wrinkled mask

The wild unkempt hair of cobwebs

The brittle touch of ancient hand

The racing heartbeat

Pounding out its horror rhythm

The nervous look into dark corners

Death waiting across the grey veil

A cold sweat and night chi...

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Damnation Trail

Through forests dark and shadowed vale

He follows the damnation trail

Along the river’s twisted course

Through bracken thick and clutching gorse

The ancient path cut through the land

He walks with devil’s hand in hand

And where his steps flatten the crops

No more will grow the wheat and hops

For he has footsteps cast in death

He steals the fa...

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Messiah Of The Fields

They left me hanging on a cross

The saviour of the summer crops

Just rag and straw so no great loss

My blood is in the wheat and hops

I faced the black and vicious hoard

Their coal cruel eyes and sharpened beaks

I am the ragged overlord

Who scares the crow yet never speaks

They pray to me to save their soils

From dark boned devils ...

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To The Saint Of Lost Causes

Melancholy Monday

Brown sugar blues

In the same vein

As your father

But you never made it

Across the river

To the other side

When you combine

The names of flawed giants

Who have fallen by the wayside

More than once

There is a grim

Divination

You leave us

Those sweet moments

From the Tennessee sun

To ...

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Dog Day

The day was hot

Hot and humid

Stretching out

Into a dog day afternoon

The boy was young

Young and stupid

Stretching out

Beneath the furnace sun

The tarn was cold

Cold and ruthless

Stretching out

Along the sunny banks

The swim was exhilarating

Exhilarating and cooling

Stretching out

And heading for the shore

The tar...

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Independence Day

At first they said ‘infect the herd’

but experts told us ‘that’s absurd,

you will cause deaths in the old.

What sort of shepherd risks the fold?’

So they put the cattle in the pen

only to be let out when

the time was right, or so they said,

they didn’t want their people dead.

The woolybacks baa’d and the daft cows moo’d

And farmer Boris calculate...

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The Truth Of Colour

The colour of humanity

Is not white skin

Or black skin

Not brown skin

Or yellow skin

It is the red blood

Of a beating heart

A blue shield

Is not the colour of humanity

When it takes a life

And all the greys

of muddled opinions

cannot change the truth

that a man could not breathe

because his skin colour

was...

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Kneel

I saw a young man kneel today

He hung his head as if to pray

But he would take a life away

To honour and protect they say

Another black man has to die

Before the country questions why

They let enforcers kill and lie

and let another mother cry

Fear and hate mix with malice

A city faces the abyss

A cocktail of vinegar and piss

On the streets o...

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Death (XIII)

My entrance on a pale horse

Raising the black standard with white rose

Is anathema to most

These bones are survivors

Of the battle between

The worlds of living and dead

This black armour

From the land of eternal sleep

Is unsurmountable

Before me

The clergy, kings and peasants

Fall beneath my hooves

When she flips me over

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The Next War Is Here

Out there, we walked quite friendly up to death,

Sat down and ate beside him, cool and bland,

Asked of his health and shook him by the hand.

Recoiled in horror at his fetid breath.

Before the world went crazy, he was there,

We treated him as though he was a fly

Who we could swat away - and never die.

We were invincible, without a care.

Now ...

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Is There, In Truth, No Beauty

I am the dry path

Sat between

The first rain drops

I am the dandelion

Dancing in a field

Missed by the scythe

I am the spark

That jumps

From flint to straw

I am the breaking wave

Crashing up against

Deserted beaches

I am the words

Caught in the throat

Of dirty liars

I am the light

Crawlin...

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The Keeper

Unlike many in his position

He was never the last to be picked

Because he was one of the best

Not for him the fast quick feet

Or the well timed volley

Or the crunching tackle

Safe hands

That night

In the cold

With his team mates

Where bravery

was an afterthought

It was his greatest save

Not a shot from the edge of the area

Not ...

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Bedlam

The greying morning

Barked like a dog

Trapped in a well

A sound so hollow

It shattered glass

In the cabinet where

She kept her memories

Tied in knots

The braying moon

Shone silver needles

Into the face

Of the weeping child

Screwing its hooks

Into soft flesh

Making the lanterns

Quiver with rage

In the ragged garden

Tendrils...

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Dead Leaves

You once grew green

On lofty branches

Defiant against the clouds

Fluttering in the breeze

But now the tree has gone

Just a pale ghost of memory

And the sky is dominant

In my front windows

Your first death was brittle

Old man skeleton scratching

Whipping up your decline

In whorls of frustration

And when the rain came

Like falling tears

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Thaw-Irkhet-if

at last the light

the promised light

slipping from Osiris’ grip

crushed by the wheel of centuries

yet

this is not the land of the lord of silence

this is not the fertile valley

this is not the underworld

this is the harsh light

of an alien world

where sacred sarcophagus

is rent asunder

and remains displayed for voyeurs

of the dead

my...

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ðə króz ləmɛ́nt

(tékən frə́m ‘the bʊ́k ə́v crows’)

kró stǽnd ən fíld

sɪ́ŋ kró sɔ́ŋ

tú hjúmən ɪ́r

sáwnd rɔ́ŋ

koww koww koww

kró blǽk ə́v wɪ́ŋ

kró blǽk ə́v bón

kró blǽk ə́v hárt

kró só əlón

áj hǽd brə́ðər blǽk

bə́t brə́ðər blǽk ɪ́z gɔ́n

tékən báj ðə wɪ́ntər

hɪ́r máj sǽd kró sɔ́ŋ

“stick mǽn

...

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Back To The Park

It’s mid July,

a summer’s day.

School is just

a memory away.

We lay on grass

and watch the sky

and count the clouds

as they pass by.

We talk of bands

we’d like to see -

Led Zeppelin, Quo,

Sabbath and Free.

Insects buzz,

a distant bark,

children playing

In the park.

You turn to me

and kiss my lips

and move in close,

h...

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Sacred Path

we walked the ancient path together

where ancestors had worn the land

into a waypoint to the barrow

carefully observing rituals and customs

under azure skies we stumbled on our way

across this land of Albion

the hops the wheat the barley

bowing heads in solemn recognition

of the passing of souls

as we walked we talked of many things

...

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Gave Me Up To Tears

"And all my mother came into mine eyes
And gave me up to tears."
— William Shakespeare, Henry V

The air tastes of mashed potatoes

When she looks into your eyes

And you look back at the fear and hurt

And she says she’s sorry for dragging you here

And you tell her it’s nothing

Even though you were complaining

That very same thing on the drive h...

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Saint Valentine’s Day Mascara

She cried when I forgot.
She cried when I remembered,
her tears like silver arrows
to my heart,
her eyes black-lined with sorrow.

The ink, barely dried,
smudged with liquid joy.
A big wet splash on the ‘o’
turning ‘love’ into ‘live’
and crowning my name
like a liquid tiara
for a princess
in a cruel land.

Granting wishes
like kisses.
So I wished s...

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A Tree In The Elephant’s Graveyard

It began with a pen
and paper,
beneath a tree.
Carried here
upon a rat
to rest awhile.

The paper was white
and stared at me
insolently.
The pen hovered,
dripping ink
like tears.

A serpent
coiled itself
around My neck.
I thought of stars
and dreamt
of gouache landscapes.

Still the paper
would not
fuck the pen.
My thoughts
were clear,
...

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funeral days

funeral days
should always be like this

early mourning dew
in the eyes of those gathered
under a slate grey sky
(not blasphemous blue)
whose heavy tears
will splash
the golden Judas kiss
of leaves crackling
beneath disrobed trees
betraying the sadness
with their joyful colour

the heavy damp sods of earth
clinging close to the coffin
like the grief
that surrounds...

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An Angel Bathes In Tears

Diniel rested for a second
and turned his eyes away
from those that he was caring for
and in that moment all was lost.
Now he bathes in the cascades
of acidic human tears
that flood the world with grief.
Erosive and corrosive
at the passing of infant souls
in a war that has no meaning
in a world that has no morals.
Now his dainty angel features
disappear unt...

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War Boys

“YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU”

We’re going to war boys,
we’re going to war,
Lord Kitchener asked us
so we formed a corps.
Joe and Jack from the factory,
Ted and Jim from the farm,
the recruiting sergeant assures us
that there’s little chance of harm.
We’re part of the great pals army
and we’ve fallen for his charm
as we march away to war.

We’re in the war boys,
we’re in the ...

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Home By Christmas

I fear I let my feelings rule my head,
that you would have no trouble getting leave.
You would be home by Christmas as they said.

All through the Autumn, sleeping cold in bed,
I dreamt of all our marriage would achieve.
I fear I let my feelings rule my head.

Not since the day that both of us were wed
had we missed carols, sung that holy eve.
You would be home by Ch...

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Grievous Angel

the cosmic cowboy
overdosed
on a deadly cocktail
of alcohol and morphine
to ease the pain
to ease the heartache
to ease the way
to redemption

Louisiana bound
to a friendless funeral
stolen away
in a cheap hearse
five gallons of gasoline
and a lighted match
in an open coffin at Cap Rock
under the Joshua trees

a blazing fireball
of wasted dreams
a flame so bri...

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Winterfylleth (October)

We die! We die!

scream the old men

of the trees,

as their grip slips

from skeletal fingers

holding them aloft.

They fall to earth

in a blaze of golden glory,

coming to rest

at the feet of

great oaks, sycamores,

birch and elms.

Rustling in their cardigans

of orange and amber

like dry skin

in...

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On Sandal’s Field Of Ghosts.

Mist hangs over fields -

ahead, the castle looms where

died the Duke Of York.

At the willows three

a chill permeates the air

and touches nerve ends.

Here fell the Yorkist

hope – body mutilated

and dragged through the mud.

Decapitated.

His head sent on to York to

top a traitors spike.

I...

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stroke

no words

blood ricocheting

in all directions

going places

where blood should

smoothly flow

not rush headlong

apologies

made by sign

for dragging me

seventy miles

to see

your broken body

no words

thinking

is this it?

is this all there is?

will I live

the rest of my life

motherless?

no wor...

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warRANT

the ack-ack-ack

of sobbing children

a tear

for every bullet

the roll of pressure

heal to toe

erasing limbs

flies swarming on open wounds

picking at the scabs

of wounded families

the searing pain

of widows and orphans

scorched flesh

hurt is local currency

guns from foreign currency

a...

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From Virginia

He sat and watched them

draw from pipes of bone and clay,

eyes closed in peaceful

meditation. Cast in clouds

of bittersweet transcendence.

I sat and watched him

turn into a hollow man,

wrapped in shrouds of grey.

His constant, shuddering, barks

cough your epitaph, Raleigh.

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