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She sat alone

Finger sandwiches and black americano,

She watched others in the little high-street bistro

Aloof and from a distance,

A sort of elsewhere, nowhere, socialising.

She checked her phone screen,

The picture of the young man

Still unchanged from the last time she checked

Just a few moments before,

There were no missed calls to return,

No texts to reply to,

She lingered for...

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🌷(9)

relationshipEnding

A young man from Leeds

There was once a sad young man from Leeds,

Who struggled through life, with special needs,

Physically abused while at school

Mentally confused; considered a fool,

He committed suicide on his TikTok feed

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SocialMediaOrSociety

Criticism of this poet, by his friend

My friend, the poet, is a fraud

(He's also intellectually flawed),

He strings together, badly I'm afraid,

Words without rhyme, their meanings strayed,

Undecipherable as hieroglyphics

Less literary, somewhat more scientific,

Four-line stanzas of moans and groans

Naked imagery without any flesh or bones,

I've read several lines of his so-called verse

Each following line ap...

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self-effacing

A franchise on my soul

 

I felt that my life was diminished

My smallest of dreams, suppressed

There stood before me a man of conviction
Asserting that I need not feel oppressed.

Like the pied piper he whistled, I listened

Of ancient arcadia, his land of hope

Where I could escape the rigours of conformity

That hung around my neck like a rope

Simply cradle in the soft arms of Morpheus

Safe, fro...

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Hope For Our Love

 

You have said, that it has to be

Our future is no longer we.

There's always you, but without me.

I cling to our memories of what went before

Before you said we were no more,

With your suitcase in hand, you slammed the door.

 

It seems strange, yet clear to me, I'm

Unhappy being this carefree,

I want a second chance at being we.

I cling to our memories of what wen...

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LostLove

The Hairdressers Tale

 

She became a woman today

Her marriage vows have fallen away.

As yellowing leaves of an autumnal tree.

 

All her hurt and shame

She knows just who to blame. 

Inconsistent husband, now the absentee.

 

With a pounding of his heart that raced

He turned and closed the door in haste.

This half-glazed threshold becomes a barrier.

 

Love lost wouldn’t again grow st...

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end of marriage

Anxiety

 

The lady in a long fluffy pink coat 

Over a pink roll-neck sweater, 

Was suffering,

She was suffering from invisible anxiety,

Constantly she cranes her neck behind to see

Furtively looking, 

Out through the cafe door

As if waiting for someone, 

Someone, 

She's not too sure she wants to meet.

Tugging gently at the tassel dangling from her coat

She has anxious d...

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MentalHealth

The Minder

“ John put those back”

“ We don't need them.“

“ No John we don't need those either”

“ Come on.”

 "If we’re not careful, we'll be here all day.”

“ I want to get home, I've had enough shopping”

“ John let’s go and get the milk, then we'll get the bread”

“ No John not here, the floor is not your bed”

“ Come on John move, you can do it”

“ If you're a good we’ll get a slice o...

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mentalHealth

RAF Swinderby

SWING THOSE ARMS!

PICK UP THOSE FEET!

LEFT RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT LEFT!

YOU SHOWER OF SHITS!

YOU SHOULD HAVE JOINED THE BLOODY NAVY!

WHAT’S YOUR NAME SON, TINKERBELL, YOU FAIRY!

DON’T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT, I’M NOT YOUR SWEETHEART!

 

We had just six weeks to go,

Apart from our sleep last night

We had been here in hell just eight hours,

Nothing prepares you for this life...

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BitOfALongOne

Stay with me

A child without influence

Conceived lacking counsel

A child of slender chance

Cry, cry, cry until

This silent life, held in hand, is yours

To shout, I am she,

Hammer deaths doors

Stay my love, stay with me

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birth

One, Two, Three, More

 

As one,

I thought that love was done

Then meeting you

We merged as two

Formerly you were three

Two young sons, and the divorcee

We became four

Them and us, and what's more

Now a family together

The sons, their mother and her lover

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No more the fool

 

We've both travelled far

We've journeyed long,

You've whistled your tune

I've sung your song,

I've listened intently,

Attended when asked,

We've played our lovers’ game

I've settled for last,

I've danced to your beat,

Recited verse,

You've needed a fool

I've come off worse,

I've lived for and loved you

Throughout the abuse,

Cried silent tears for you,

...

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(not mine)emotional abuse

Fields of Poppies

Let's hold each other's hands,

And in silence, stand

Where the fields of poppies grow,

Let us remember them

Our brave young men

Buried just below.

 

For those who cried

As they laid down and died,

So very far from home,

With just white clouds,

Deaths gossamer shrouds

Covering their tortured bones.

 

Let's think a little more,

Is liberty worth dying for?

...

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rememberance

The Small Square Table

They sat close together at the small square table

Two ladies lunching, demure and cultivated

Maybe wrongly, I surmise they're unrelated

But I sense a friendship of many years

Together, through laughter and many tears

 

Hair recently coiffured, sprayed with earthquake-proof hold

They appear interchangeable, sat side by side

Both dressed similarly, much refinement implied

...

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people watching

Lest We Forget

Soon be remembrance day so I thought I would offer you this thought

 

 

Form a queue boys, form a queue,

Stand still in line boys, stand still in line,

It's coming to you boys, it's coming to you,

One at a time.

 

Your country needs you boys, your country needs you,

To fight in their wars boys, to fight in their wars,

For the right and the true boys, the right and the...

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Rememberance day

Born to Die

 

Waves rolling slowly, onto an empty shore,

Wash clean the pebbles and the sand,

Whilst bubbling white foam, marks

an evaporating monument to the journey's end.

Freely dancing on the open water,

Light, from the sleepy harbour, reflects

as facets of a cut jewel glistens

Into the gem cutter's eye.

No mourners in melancholic song,

Lament the sea's daily demise,

No me...

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Paint Life as an Abstract Expression

The Abstractor brushes a green day

A pink sun hung in a star-studded rainbow sky

A nude autumnal tree at the conclusion of spring

Roots suck the life from a metallic river of red

That springs from one cobble of a cobblestone road

With a roof for a floor

A wall for a door

An escape from your dreams

 

An expression of love, a hue of silent grey

Hate a fierce streak of v...

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Running scared little maiden

Why are you running scared little maiden?

Why do you hide amongst the trees?

Do you believe your dreams are in tatters?

And that you’ve finally crumbled to your knees.

Are you sure you want to run little maiden?

Please take a pause whilst I hold your hand,

You’ll see then that running till your heart bleeds

Won’t help you navigate life or understand

 

You believe that sh...

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The Mysterious Letter

 

Sam quietly opened the study door.

Her stepfather was standing by his desk,

Rapt by a letter from the morning post

Looking near comically Chaplinesque

 

"You'll never get those filthy hands of yours

on what I've built, you despicable slag"

He was shouting loudly at the letter

"I'll finish you, you malevolent hag,"

 

From the desk, he took the long letter knife

...

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Our love has a DVT

I thought we would be forever, together, better

Then any individual thrill, yet still

We overlooked each other

 

I thought that I would feel a happy chappy not crappy

Like I felt with previous lovers gone before, so sure.  

We subsequently unhooked from those others

 

Yet what is bizarre, we are, not far, 

We’re close at hand. Must we disband?

For this love has a deep...

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Ode to an M&S toasted teacake

 

Oh toasted teacake

Whose spiced fruitfulness

buttered buns doth make

My taste buds, multitudinous.

 

Strawberry jam scooped

luxuriously spread,

Juiced raisins covered

Sweet blanket overhead.

 

Oh toasted teacake

soft baked, brown coated

slightly burnt domed hat

Adds texture, pleasantly noted.

 

A certain keenness

to repeat this pleasure

Like ...

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The Last Will and Testament of a Poet

My England.

May I ask?

That when death calls,

You'll caress

this poet.

Where his shadow falls,

 

On his grave,

Lay a rose

of deepest red,

Shed, just one

single tear,

For your loyal dead,

 

Paupers grave

without cross

or marker stone.

Silent rest,

rest in peace

In your arms alone,

 

Entombed in

Blakes rhythmic

green and pleasant l...

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Symi

Symi

A small island of the Dodecanese

Island folk seem so eager to appease

Unhurried life puts us firmly at ease

Gently blown by the soft Aegean breeze

Symi

Archangel Michael of Panormitis

This monastery draws us, invites us

Somehow we acquire a monk to guide us

Lighting candles for those gone before us

Symi

With neoclassical coloured houses

Gift Shops, some bar...

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holiday

The simile of The Mist.

Fine mist,

On Scottish hills

(is like the fattened paunch

of a corpulent man,) it just

rolls down

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cinquain

The old man in the next bed,

It's coming, I know it,

My final hours of life,

I have regrets

But I have no more strife,

My past stretched behind me

There is nothing ahead,

I'll be relieved when the time comes.

When I'm finally dead.

 

When that moment arrives

When finally I'm gone,

They'll say of me

His pitiful life, done,

He lived, he loved, he laughed,

Somewhat reluctantly.

Graspe...

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Little brown pictures

Proud, and oh so beautiful. 

The Peacock emerges monochromatically 

from surrounding flowers, to be reborn.

Nearby sepia swans encapsulate your beauty and your success.

Enhancing both energy and health 

All silhouetted by the bronzed-toned moon above

Leaves on vines show longevity in our devotion.

The winding chestnut-coloured dragon

wrapped loosely around my forearm 

en...

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Don’t play it again. Uncle Sam:

Mr America,

Why do you shout?

You’re really a loudmouth.

That’s without doubt.

You scream patriotism from deep in your lungs.

At those with diverse traditions, an assortment of tongues,

In the land of the free, you incarcerate those

Less fortunate than most, those too easily disposed

 

Mr America,

Why do you gloat?

As you sail away to damnation,

In your open-top...

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Faded Pictures

Pathetically and silently, she sat 

In her chair, a frail old lady

Neither showing emotion nor self-pity

Rejected and ignored by the family she conceived,

Their faded pictures are framed on her wall.

But they are not coming soon.

Certainly not this week.

Their lives are now at such a pace.

There is no recognition that hers is concluding.

She sat 

A miserable, life-sca...

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growing old

Simile and Metaphor

Poetic similes and metaphors

They are just ungainly analogies.

The writing on the wall says Belshazzar.

The poets' gold turned to brass by alchemy.

Describing Guardsmen erect in their ranks

stood like the contents of a vesta box.

Or a prostitute on the street corner.

A marina where men sail up and dock.

A cloud is a cloud, however lonely.

Child of a man is still a girl o...

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Goodbye

No words,

No thoughts,

Just tears.

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To old, too young

 

One by one, it seems

Our joy from childhood dreams

quickly falls away.

Until the day

None of those dreams remain.

 

The red balloons

We let loose to fly

Those floating memories of our youth

Passing by, high in the sky

Our childhood days

Sometimes, misguided ways

They made us cry.

 

The laughter we had then

Beyond recapture

We will never live aga...

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reminisce

1997, She’s gone

On Sunday, August 31st, tragedy.

You came to our room, waking me.

"Diana is dead."

You said

Prince Charles is on his way to France.

Why are you giving me that sideways glance?

 

On Monday, September 1st, "Let's talk."

We're over. Love has walked

This is the end.

Let's just be friends.

In London, there's a one-minute silence.

Here, never-ending silent defiance.

...

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love lost

Death in polite society is quieter.

 

When the time comes and I must die,

(Unsurprisingly, there's no date for when).

Gathered family weep, may even cry.

For this life, lived and loved, amen.

 

Will I die lying in my bed?

Peacefully, restfully, within my home,

Will friends encircle my soft final breath?

Or slabbed in the morgue all alone.

 

I'd prefer to die in slumber.

My lover and I entwined, fa...

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Let’s not fall in Love.

 

Heaven, full of shooting stars, watched

while we lay close together on a sandy beach.

Wishes made that day may be cast away.

When no longer close, when we're out of reach

We'll surely blame one another.

For the closeness of our smother,

Then we may part.

 

Bittersweet tears may fall.

From our eyes to the floor

Promises sworn may be torn.

from hearts, and yet o...

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I'm not in love

Goodbye Mum

   

I'm sitting in this quiet shell,

I neither belong to it, nor it to me,

I want to lift up my head, just once,

Then sail away, be free.

 

My body though doesn't act the way

That other bodies really should,

Why is everything that I do in life

So wrong and never good?

 

Why does my Daddy shout so much?

Why does my Mummy cry?

Why can't I be like everyone el...

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Busy Mister Taxman

 

Dear busy mister taxman

I trust that I find you well.

I hope you're sitting comfortably.

A story I have to tell.

 

It centres around the rebate.

You so kindly sent today.

It really is too kind of you.

To remember me this way

 

But wait... What is this I see?

It fills my soul with terror.

Because dear busy mister taxman

It seems you've made an error.

 

...

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tongue in cheek

The Charge of the Light Ale’rs (apologises to Tennyson)

 

Half a lager, half a larger,

Half a larger. Onward

into their bellies so fast.

Poured the six punters.

"Four more light ales they craved!"

“Charge a large gin!" he said.

Into their bellies in haste

Poured the six punters.

 

"Four more light ales !" They craved

Err, were men so ale'd?

Not though the barman knew

Someone overcharged.

Not them to make amends...

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parody

Within your eyes

 

If only I could find preconstructed words

Scattered amongst vocabularic sherds,

That could easily describe and characterise

That bright sparkle within your eyes,

For then the world may understand

That, which I know for sure first-hand,

For within those eyes,

All my future pleasure lies,

Deep steely blue pools of passion

Are not as cold as one may imagine,

Like ro...

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Love

When we were young

 

Summer morning, Nineteen Seventy,

Field study, Miss Skipworth's junior third,

Inspired location, unvisited

But silently, we listened, absorbed.

 

Amazed that Carr Dyke was Roman-built,

I had no knowledge and less inkling,

Imported empire goods transported,

From Nene valley up to Lincoln.

 

Engineered during Hadrian's reign,

Built fen waterway, the border wall,

...

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Father and Son

“I have a good mind”

No, you don’t

You bully, harrass, and cajole

But never with a good mind, 

Ever.

“You just sit there”

I’ll sit, but you dear father 

Can’t stop my mind from racing 

across the universe, to view

The wonders

“You’ll never learn”

You never teach, 

Or demonstrate clearly

What you ask is out of my reach

And my interest

“Why do you answer ...

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Riding the Tube

 

Travelled in London,

Rode the Picadilly line,

Deodorant's fine

If others spray, otherwise

There's no nasal protection.

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Making Up in BSL

 

Lovers at a round table 

Experiencing alfresco Expresso,

Arguing so passionately at each other,

Their flailing arms demand the attention of the other,

Facial expressions accentuate each silent voice

Grimacing with gritted teeth, wide-eyed disbelief

Frantically fingers touch their face with force

Spelling words and phrases only they can share,

Some shock the reader but ...

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Clouds of White

Floating gently above darkened clouds,

Looking down upon madding crowds,

Whistling wind and dripping rain,

See those people mightily strain

Against the boredom of their humdrum life,

A husband late home to his nagging wife

Who’s spent her day in effortful cleaning

Washing, cooking, all-day preening,

Ironing, polishing, occasionally resting,

Maintaining their home so both...

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See you later Alligator, In a while Crocodile.

 

Let's go for a wander

Anaconda,

What’s your wish?

Jellyfish,

Let's just have a gander

Salamander,

What shall we see?

Chimpanzee.

We’ll see what’s about 

Rainbow Trout,

Whether that's a little

Or even Axolotl,

Where shall we go?

Water buffalo

What about the beach?

Common Leech,

I don’t fancy that

Little brown bat,

How about the park?

Gre...

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thisisverylong

Four Pound, Half An Ounce

Two bags of sugar

A pinch of ground black pepper,

Weight of the baby

Mother gave birth to that day.

(I've sure made up for it since).

 

Born on the Sabbath

Priests rejoiced at her bedside.

Six weeks early though,

Sagittarian archer

Not a horned Capricorn goat.

 

First hours without God

We both looked death in the eye,

Mum scarred by cancer,

I, tubed and...

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motherly love

Lost in Conflict

 

Many years ago

In a long-forgotten time,

I watched a Channel Four TV show,

I was hooked in episode one,

The endings had a certain style

Making me wait impatiently for next week,

I was gripped by the excitement

Needing to understand more.

 

Each character held and hid a secret

Plots had subplots galore,

I couldn’t always keep up,

So I took comfort in social ...

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Virgin Summer Night

 

Nothing assaults the senses like the chill air of a summer's evening,

Forearm follicles as erect as a pubescent boy's expectation of his young penis 

Or nipples hardening through your silken blouse. 

The smell of summer love when two bodies collide in passion

It has the warmth of the day yet exacerbated and put to fire by your sensual touch, 

Sweat from our movements and desire...

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first love

Metaphors of The Unsated

 

A pebble thrown into a millpond displays delightful concentric circles

I have thrown countless pebbles, to no avail

What’s unfair should make you stronger,

I’m the sum of my life's successes, not my failures, 

A bicycle peddled, generates forward motion, faster and faster downhill,

I’ve pressed down firmly, I’m no more forward than I was before.

What’s unfair should make you...

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no fathers day

Mocked by Weevils

I will take your hand, please lead me from darkness, 

Living this tortuous love, every day,

I saw hurting myself as reasonably, to my mind, 

the only exit. 

But I was too much a coward, without your help

Each day my skin crawled, 

Infected by imaginary long-snouted Weevils

That left tiny footprints on my dry flaking skin,

Each print points forward

Mocking my decision to ...

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suicide poem

Confused Dot Com

Just three little questions my dear friends,

I hope you can lend a hand,

Each scenario happened today,

And I still don’t quite understand.

 

If the square of the hypotenuse,

Is the sum of squares on either side,

How do you get an Articulated lorry,

Through a gate just 10 feet wide.

 

The calculated arc of a cannonball,

Hits square the castle wall, not the moat,

...

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humourpoetry

Offspring

 

All my life I have heard their sound

But they rejected the want of me

My unfading desire to see

I the father. It was never meant to be 

 

We had each other, desires abound 

Still, they rejected both you and me

My unfading desire to see

I the father. Was never meant to be 

 

We tried, we cried, in tears, our love drowned

I rejected you, they still rejected me

...

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Paul and Art’s  ‘B’ Side to Mrs Robinson

 

The deepest depth that it’s possible to fall,

Is into an abyss of betrayal and despair,

Duplicity cuts deep for the unsuspecting soul,

Leaving life without direction, reason or care,

Yet you held your head high

Showed him the door, waved goodbye,

And you moved on.

 

The longest journey you could undertake,

Starts with that initial tentative step,

Traversing the p...

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love poems

Jubilee

Just another day? No.

Unlike any occasion for a descendant of Alfred,

Bunting fluttering, balloons flying, bonhomie bestowed

Images of infectious inclusivity, involving

Legions of patient Mall celebrants

Euphoric and excitable subjects of the realm

Embracing each and every moment of Royal reverence.

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jubilee

Granchester

I’ve walked in the footsteps of Rupert Brooke,

Paddled barefoot in Byron's pool,

Had tea with Mrs Woolfe and Maynard Keynes,

The sky, reminiscent of grandparent's tales of youth

For them then, it was always warm and sunny with a blue haze,

They always finished their tales with the phrase, "not anymore."

Yet today it was, a pre-1940 azure blue sky

Reminiscent of an Arthur or En...

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Mud

 

One Night, 

Up The Airy Mountain

On the slopes of Shangri La

L, L, Lucy and Rico were to Drift Away 

although inexperienced

Under The Moon Of Love.

Lean On Me my Slow Talking Boy, Lucy comforted

I’ve read the Book of Love 

We should Just Try A Little Tenderness

For Rico, there was no Beating Round The Bush

This was no Hula Love.

Use Your Imagination

And tre...

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 The Man in the Crooked Hat

 

"No one will know," Said the man in the crooked hat,

"No one will guess, see, I'm very well respected,"

"I'm a pillar of this community,”

"I wouldn't even be suspected.”

 

But I will surely know, I thought,

I will have to carry this shame,

As well as a guilty conscience,

But I'll never carry your blame.

 

I can't remember your facial features,

I remember your ...

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Will You Come And Hold Me

Will you come and meet me?

When I get to heaven,

Will you come and find me?

 

I’m afraid to go

But I know you’re there,

Will you come and find me?

 

It's not been easy,

No cure-all for a broken heart,

Will you come and love me?

 

I think every day

About my love for you,

Will you come and love me too?

 

I’ve missed you,

Sought-after through sorrowe...

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Don’t Break the Bat, Play the Game

 

Catch the midnight thirty train from oblivion,

Hold high your head to the morning light,

Sense newfound wisdom in your heart,

See opportunities once hidden from your sight.

 

Hope is not lost to a poor man's widow,

Love not destroyed in a spiders web,

Dreams are not abandoned whilst we’re not sleeping,

They are just postponed, as the sea on the ebb.

 

So take up ...

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Debt Owed and Paid

 

Black-hearted they, black shone their eyes, 

Their final resting place, below ground, lies, 

Tabloids surmise the last intake of breath, then,

Retell painful stories of these felonious men. 

 

No mourners they, all excluded from this site, 

Cold stiff lifeless bodies now in their deaths contrite, 

No tears of grief from lamenting eyes are shed 

Only priestly absolution...

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Marion Braidfute (Wife of Braveheart)

Longshank’s Primae Noctis

Favoured sport of overlord

Returning sullied to my husband, crying,

I grasp his battle sword,

Our Lord this nicht has defiled me 

My virginity tooketh, not giv’n,

Let’s pledge undying hatred afor him

Ne’er shall he e’er be forgiv’n.

Let us seek our retribution, with this sword I will unbleed him

My flower may be stolen, but he’ll ne’er tak my fr...

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freedom

1967 Coniston Water

Bluebird whistles in the air,

We were there, when

The bluebird dipped into the lake,

It reminds me of us, once singing sweetly

Then down,

Overcome by the black waters of indifference.

Bluebird rises up, not confidently

Spluttering shoreward, down, gone,

It reminds me of us, quick to love

Then speedily to oblivion.

Love remembered but hopelessly lost,

In those dark ...

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Bitter Colours

This bitter coloured wind, 

Steelyard blue, 

Cuts like a knife piercing the skin, cold as frosted sparks.

 

Your bitter coloured smile, 

Pursed pink, 

Sucks life as an Octipi suck, and leaves ugly marks where you have touched. 

 

The bitter colour of your love, 

Redacted black, 

Blocks light as a lid over our past and future, our present is already lost. 

 

This...

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Not the worst thing?

Parasites that suck from your veins,

Ticks, quickly gorge and grow

Fit to bursting.

Fleas, trigger your flesh to complain,

Leeches induce blood t’flow,

That’s not the worst thing?

"Not even close," said the politician

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Need some help?

 

Diazepam sponsors your mental health

Destroying the heart of your brain by stealth


 

 

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Every day is Earthday

Earth Mother wearing her pastel blue bonnet,

White clouds like cultured pearls strung around her neck, 

A stole like warm breeze envelops,

Sturdily held treetops cast shadows on the ground,

Leaves and grass a similar green, cast grey. 

Babbling, a small transparent stream, without the guilt of direction,

Meandering, sometimes galloping, sometimes near still,

Waterside Weeping ...

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You Can't

You can’t, choose your family

They get to choose neither,                                  

They have no say in you,

Or you in them either,

The boss made the rules,

He can’t exactly break them,                   

Your family is as is,

You shouldn’t really blame them,                                       

I know you do,

Things happen, possibly blamelessly,            

...

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Alliterative Dating

Single salacious Sagittarian,

Seeks safe sexual satisfaction,

Sensually seductive Scorpion sought.

Simply send solicited Snapchat snapshot,

Successful satiation,

Secrecy sworn. 

SWALK.

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Is it too late to kick start a wasted life?

 

I'm amazed at just how little I know 

about anything at all. I thought I knew a lot, 

I have hundreds of books on my shelf that's got to mean something,

Especially If I had read them! 

Then I would know lots more, But it seems that this is my anachronism

Old fashioned knowledge learning, juxtaposed with modern living

The time I’ve not spent reading these regimentally stack t...

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Diabetic Discography (Sung to the tune, Prince Charming by Adam and The Ants)

 

Vipidia, and Gliclazide

Atorvastatin, Finger prick and testing

Don't eat sugar, Don't eat sugar

Stop getting Hyper, Finger prick and testing

Metformin

Metformin

Glaucoma is something to be scared of

Vipidia, and Gliclazide

Atorvastatin, Finger prick and testing

Vipidia, and Gliclazide

Neuropathy, don't forget all your tablets

Vipidia, and Gliclazide

Neuropa...

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🌷(5)

You Can’t Fly A Kite In The Rain

The only obligation for living,

Is that we lay down somewhere and die,

The only thought we have of happiness,

Is felt as we breakdown and cry,

So don't speak to me of your understanding,

Don't expect telegrams of thanks,

Luxury cocoons you from misery, as

With hands tied we fall on life's tracks.

 

Ministry for Empathy’s doors firmly bolted,

All other avenues to a bri...

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🌷(7)

Life Has No Refund Policy

Life is not just a game

That you or I can play,

Life is what we all make

Of each, and every day.

 

Lifes ups and downs are there, so

We can laugh and cry out loud,

Wished for silver linings are

Accompanied by a cloud.

 

You're not alone in life's game,

There's nothing, no one to blame,

We all struggle the same,

Way walking in the rain,

 

Our death at th...

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Ministry of Misanthopery

 

Miserable men

Bow your heads in shame

Let guilt of a thousand years be your name

 

Foul-smelling offspring

Of a winters freeze

Satisfy your smugness, down on your knees

 

Crawl even lower

Than the sons of snakes

Crawl from the chaos you've left in your wake

 

Slither silently,

Without any sound

Slither silently as you go to ground

 

Ebb fairly q...

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🌷(3)

Stevie 1902 to 1971

Miss Smith, Oh Miss Smith, 

Whom did you share your life with? 

I hear no men, nor grateful lovers 

Slept nightly warmed, between cotton covers. 

 

 

Miss Smith, Oh Miss Smith, 

Backbone filled with English pith, 

Father absconds when you’re only three, 

So, off to 'Lion Aunts' for afternoon tea. 

 

 

Miss Smith, Oh Miss Smith, 

Celebrated poet smith, 

Cap...

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🌷(4)

Happy ever after

 

Hearing my name,

I sprang off the bed,

My new mum had shouted "dinner time".

Running down the dark corridor in this big old house,

I am reminded of the Romanian orphanage where I had lived,

There were no windows, nor light

in those corridors either.

Young then

and small,

The older ones would bully me,

Often forcing me to give up my food to them.

My perfect day

...

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Uxoricide

I had a wife,

Her name was Claire,

She had beautiful eyes,

She had long blonde hair.

 

We also had a dog,

Claire called it Mac,

If she threw a stick,

Mac brought it back.

 

We had a cat,

Claire's little Mabel,

She would feed it by hand,

From the dining room table.

 

We had tropical fish,

From the freshwaters of Japan,

Claire watched them for hours...

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Wooden Flooring at the Bottom of our Stairs

Hard shiny flooring
Interlocking laminates
Feels cold to bare feet
Slippery when wearing socks
Step safely on rug islands

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Morning Canine Constitutional Stroll

White frost underfoot,

Green shoots poking through,

My shoes letting the cold come in,

What’s it like for you?

 

Circling slowly,

You need that perfect spot,

This cold, now biting my feet,

I should’ve worn thicker socks,

 

This way, then that,

Surely you must know,

The direction we are going,

Do you have to walk so slow?

 

The sun shines, yet it’s still...

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Turgidity

(from small acorns, mighty oaks grow)

 

 

So much pressure on growth,

Small acorn by comparison to most of the world,

Yet I will undoubtedly amount to so much,

I just need time and turgidity,

Push through,

Push upwards,

Push onwards,

Gravity gives a clue about which direction,

That I must push against, 

With all those pressures, I’m Geotropically immune, 

Suc...

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🌷(1)

I Don’t Know What Went So Wrong That Day

 

I don’t know what went so wrong that day,

It happened before my own life began,

You met a man, you fell in love,

Turned that man into my father,

You forgot, however, to turn that man from 

Being a bigot,

An emotional bully was his nature,

He raised children like a Sergeant Major.

 

I don’t know what went so wrong that day,

It happened when I was about four,

Yo...

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All about love (By a recently jilted lover)

 

Amour!

Amour!

Amour!

 

No more!

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Holidaying in Cardigan Bay

 

Kaikoura or Tresaith

Similar but different

Seen Sheep, not Welsh Whales

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Yesterday, Today, No Tomorrow

There's no hope in a world full of desperation,

When our worst nightmares have all come to life,

There's no heart in the greyness of desolation,

When the mere act of surviving is strife.

The bearest of care for those suffering,

Death is the only escape from the pain,

The nuclear mushroom uplifts its horrors,

Depositing all its doom down as rain.

Yesterday's visions of our t...

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Not Too Young to be a Pensioner

With a thick tartan blanket,

An old rocking chair,

A pipe, some slippers,

White thinning hair,

A little black mongrel,

Asleep on the floor,

The love of a good wife,

Who could ask any more?

A big flat-screen TV,

Tuned to BBC 1,

A roaring log fire, 

Matching the warmth of the sun,

A mug of hot chocolate,

With a biscuit or two,

The joys of old age,

Are com...

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🌷(4)

Miss

Miss Guided,

And Miss Directed, 

Driving home together, from their lovely holiday,

Hoping this was the best route for their drive,

But they had been given poor advice, 

By Mister Roundabout 

And Mister Junction,

They should never have been on the ‘A’ Two Two Five.

 

In a panic, they started ringing friends,

For more up to date route finder advice,

But Miss Read, an...

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🌷(4)

The School Run

 

Young mums of all shapes and sizes,

Stood outside the little school gates,

Superciliously smiling,

At other young mums, as they wait.

 

Some of them come on bicycles,

Others arriving in flash SUVs,

Walkers with prams or other tots,

There's even one with a taxi.

 

There are some Nannies, not Nannys,

Mind you, there could be one or two,

There are granddads an...

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Hula skirts, Kisses and Leis

To sleep,

I remember nothing during the time that I’m asleep,

Do you?

I dream of exotic places with sandy beaches,

Desert island,

Ladies in hula skirts handing out kisses and Leis,

Do you?

Or is it just me, in that early morning central heating,

Too warm,

I arise, quickly dress, and descend the stairs,

Downhill now,

I see the evidence of the morning that I had miss...

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Interior Decorating

We've had the decorator in this week,

Such a nice chap,

Hard-working,

He's local,

But originally from Newcastle,

But we can’t hold that against him,

Can we?

The colour choice,

Not chosen by me,

It’s a sort of Starbucks, Costa theme,

Cappuccino,

With frothy barley white,

Stick it in a mug and I’d be happy,

It's going in the dining and living rooms,

Then we ...

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Mrs. Lloyds Daughter

Mrs Lloyds' daughter, Carrie,

Lives a fast life, will not tarry,

Wishing away the nights that she sleeps,

Cursing the hours of the days and the weeks.

 

Cursing away those hours in her day,

Annoyed that her life hasn’t turned out the way

She had planned, hoping her future had instore

An escape from this routine she endures.

 

Life took offence, he fled through the doo...

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A Dutchman Earmarked For Greatness

(words in Bold are his paintings)

 

There was once a painter called Van Gogh,

Who painted young Adeline Ravoux,

Still life, Cabbage and Clogs,

A Cart with Black Ox,

And a Wheatfield covered in Crows.

 

The early works of Vincent Van Gogh,

Showed working folk, scenes set in snow,

A Peasant Burning Weeds,

Autumnal Landscape with Trees,

Sowing, picking, peeling and...

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Dance on, little kite, dance on.

 

Cushions of lace, cushions of lace, 

Rest your head little kite, rest your head, 

Then fly high, straight and proud 

Fly high amongst the clouds, 

Dance on, little kite, dance on. 

Diamonds and pearls, diamonds and pearls, 

Shine through little kite, shine through,

Fly high coloured one 

Fly high to the sun, 

Dance on, little kite, dance on. 

Whispers of wind whi...

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Youthful Love

Together in the park, that summer, we had so much fun,

Such a lark, the both of us carefree and young,

Escaping mothers who were highly strung,

We played, occasionally to our shame, we

Misbehaved, carving our names into a tree,

Youthful ways, those days of being we.

Those youthful days were an endless bliss,

That long hot summer, when we fumbled our first kiss,

Our attempts...

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Thanking God?

 

Empathy

Is often mistaken for

Sympathy

But don't be confused.

One is about walking 

In the footsteps of others,

The other is about 

Thanking God that you’re not.

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That's just crazy

That's just crazy, seeing

An elephant climb an Acacia nut tree,

Or hedgehogs on a supermarket spree,

Even marrying a blue whale called Penelope.

 

Even crazier than that would be

Seeing a horse playing Texas hold ‘em,

A cat doing laundry, ironing and folding ‘em,

A parade of Echidnas with one Ant beholding ‘em. 

 

That is so crazy to comprehend

But what's even craz...

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🌷(2)

Young Man, Old Man

A young man with old man's knees

Please,

I’m only just sixty.

 

A young man with an old man’s back,

Lacks,

Straightness, now all twisty.

 

A young man with old man's eyes

Surprise,

That was a blur a moment ago.

 

A young man with old man’s legs,

Unterwegs,

I think I should stay not go.

 

A young man with an old man’s brain,

Refrains, 

From reme...

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Just Last Week

The lady who lived in the big house,

At the end of our quiet street,

Unfortunately and without warning,

That lady died just last week.

 

Her daughter has been round several times,

Assisting with household chores,

That will eventually make the house sale complete,

Once theirs, it could soon become yours.

 

I have to pinch myself every time I see her,

When she is out...

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Friday Night Is Date Night

image by Faustina-Cusco

the words in (brackets) are my inner voice.

 

We were seated at table forty-five,

Two chairs a table and a tealight,

Tucked away in the corner, sandwiched,

between two larger parties,

When I say larger!

(I don’t just mean in number).

Some of these diners were huge, just like their meals.

At one point I had to say ‘Excuse me please',

(I was b...

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Shopping

I hate weekly food shopping

I feel sometimes like, Topping

myself, I’d enjoy much more, Hopping

around on one leg for a week, or Lopping

my legs off at the knees, be seen Bopping

to The music of Chrissie Hynde, or Belly-flopping 

off the Eiffel tower, Chopping

down an endangered rain forest, or Mopping

up vomit on an emergency room floor, Toppling

headfirst, over the gra...

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To Be A Lion Or A Mouse

 

Oh, Kremlin Lion,

Do you not dream

Of being more than just a fool,

Can you not see

From around your heavy mane,

Can you not hear 

Above your own thunderous roar,

You’ve charged headlong,

Not pausing to think,

Not stopping to wonder why

You’ve gained the scars of the hunt.

But not gained the victory spoils. 

You are baffled and beguiled 

By Kyiv mouse,

...

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He's not, he's just missing

 

Johnny, Johnny Johnson,

Where have you gone, son?

I've looked all over the housing estate,

Come back little man it's getting late.

But still, you haven't come back home,

Tell me boy are you alone?

I've worried for you lad, what with all the news

Of those evil men, who abduct and abuse

Both little girls and little boys,

Then they break their bodies like you break you...

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She Gasped For Air

Drifting lifeless body, floating in this dirty old river,

Looking at her now still body, motionless, without life to shiver,

She must have thrashed about a lot, trying to grasp the muddy bank,

She must have been held, anything else in this river would have sank,

She went under a few times her bloated corpse shows, 

That she breathed the foul water, through both her mouth and nose,

...

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