head over heliotropes

~

head over heliotropes ( seportoileh revo daeh )

…

beginning in the midlands

the sun behind your eyes

      a stick in the muddle

      a bubble teapot

a pebble in my pocket

speckled like a frog

      in the throat of a stoat

      & another morning floats

as the catkins nap

listen, siskins sing

      the present is a pheasant

      croaking like a toad

the past is pickled onions

& mint choc chip

      mind the bloody gap

      & the jibber-jabber’s trap

the future is a boot

a flutter & a flute

      fly through the shite

      of a deep blue night

reel as a wheel

then the milky way is silky

      the rest is reverie

      & everyone ate cornflakes

…

gnomevember

~

gnomevember ( rebmevemong )

…

shave in early august
& wait three months

’til a beard appears
like your jesus in al-qaeda

shrink like a doctor
by at least five feet

wear a pointy hat
toil the autumn soil

shapes within the air
shifting like a cryptid

bulbs beneath the bleak
guard the sleeping garden

speak an elfin tongue
with a pygmy-pixie accent

smoke a giant pipe
toking like a pope

ruddy up your face
with rosy red blusher

spot the falling leaves
see the decomposure

fish beside the pond
’til the water freezes over

dance until december
have a happy gnomevember

…

ghost list

~

ghost list ( tsil tsohg )

…

the ghoul schoolmistress

the phantom philatelist

the basket weaving wraith

dancing forms & shapes

a silent poltergeist

with wicked body odour

the mist within your shadow

the ever floating torso

of a cauliflower farmer

ripped apart by foxes

in nineteen ninety five

midas – my goldfish

who drowned last march

a screeching barn owl’s skull

shuck, the black lab

dracula – of course

if non-corporeal

headless horseman

( plus horse )

…

blurb song

~

blurb song ( gnos brulb )

…

roadworks ahead

red means go

      grow your own poems

      in a bum notebook

may contain nutter

keep two metres

      like a good little gimp

      use by last tuesday

sew facing south

with a pebble in your mouth

      this way uppercut

      crossed parry fingers

shake like a sheikh

on a bumpy camel ride

      defrost thoroughly

      & dance like a pixie

singing in the spring

in e-flat minor

      gargle in the garden

      as the crowbar flies

soak both ends

in lukewarm thistle milk

      every other sunday

      is a monday in disguise

…

monks ‘n’ monkey me

~

monks ‘n’ monkey me ( em yeknom ‘n’ skom )

…

silence is alive
shiver in this shibboleth
in between the breaths of death
like the i in we

weaving in the mist
downing tins of bouncing beans
singing songs of headless queens
smoking sesame

dancing with the ants
pantomimes in pantaloons
as a rabid badger croons
pissing up a tree

so beneath the moon
see the beams of lucifer
tickle uncle jupiter
morning is a key

’til the sun’s a star
when the lark’s a garden gnome
if the wind’s a metronome
seek the green of lea

hens as pecking pens
marching as a tiger barks
pencil sharpeners, sharks ‘n’ snarks
monks ‘n’ monkey me

catch a catkin’s nap
ink to timbuktu or france
prancing with a spastic stance
scribble on & see

…

( alternative names for winter )

~

( alternative names for winter ) ( retniw rof senam evitanretla )

…

moss greening season

lichen’s lantern light

catkin naptime

snow’s intermission

the mistletoe months

frost’s interregnum

hot chocolate’s calling

the doldrum’s rectum

spring’s bleak prequel

haunted autumn’s sequel

the bleak mid-wither

summer’s evil twin

…

barking stuff

~

barking stuff ( ffuts gnikrab )

…

barking in a wood
the bark of a postage stamp
but the bark stops here

bark where i belong
eyes in the bark of my head
all the way bark home

& barking the trend
feel like a million barks
scratching my bark side

bark against the wall
it’s water off a duck’s bark
the bark of beyond

we’re in the bark yard
like johann sebastian
yeah, bark to square one

bark in the saddle
with a monkey on your bark
barking both horses

…