It Rained Today

It rained today

Breaking the strangling heat

But it wasn’t a cleansing rain

It didn’t dilute the colour of our skin

Or wash away the blood on our streets

It just soaked

The lonely man erecting barricades

So that McCars could McQueue for McBurgers

As consumerism kicked back in

And the deluge began

The air felt clearer though

Cracked...

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Pandora’s Box

barbeques and beaches

your own little playground

complaining about others

who sit in your space

incandescent

that schools are reopening

while little Johnny plays

with his mates in the park

lighting a fire

to cremate your pork chops

on the grass and heathlands

where sparks are bullets

leaving B&Q

with a six foot mirror

t...

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Ritual

It is a grey morning

I am awake early

The backdoor is open

And cool air enters the kitchen

My father is on his knees

Scrubbing a wire brush

On the fire grate

Newspapers on the floor

He takes a rag

And pours black lead

Onto the stiffened fibres

Then he smears it

Onto the scrubbed surfaces

He balls up the newspaper

And throws it on the hearth

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Away The Lad

When you haven’t got a friend

Or a carer you can reach

Then plan a family trip

To the better equipped North East

County Durham’s nice this time of year

Or so I hear them say

And simply by happenstance

It’s only my wife’s birthday

You see me and the Missus

developed a little cough

so we panicked and headed North

and all the newspaper can Fu...

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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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fly

a haphazard weaving

of unclear intention

the drone of annoyance

the beating of

full spectrum wings

the tap

                tap

                                tap

                                                tap

of attempt after attempt

to get through the glass

of the window

and reach the free domain

of the out there

the buzz

       ...

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A Life

From the day you are born

On the first day you cry

To the safe place you sleep

In the cot where you lie

On that first day at school

Where you struggle and try

From the first girl you kiss

To the way you feel shy

From your very first job

To the company tie

On the day that we met

To that very first sigh

On that day that you left

To the first ques...

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Third Beach

This is the sunny place my spirits rest

Sat on a wooden bench watching the sea

The shimmer from the bright pacific west

The only place on earth I long to be.

The walkers and the cyclists passing by

Upon the wide and welcoming sea wall

The seagulls and crows desperately try

To out call the other in pine trees tall.

I watch the tankers in the distance drif...

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In Another Place

a soft breeze

drifting through an open window

hung with net curtains

the faint perfume

escaping

from an open book

the creak of a floorboard

cracking

above you

the shadows

caught dancing through the doorway

in a dim lit room

the taste of honey

clinging

on a teaspoon

the feel of a scarf

on your face

...

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