Photo

( yet more author notes )

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scribbled in the midlands
by a scroat in odd socks

lit by tealight
up before the farmers

read by smoky fishwives
praetorian gardeners

rabid traffic wardens
& seasick oceanographers

at least it’s not the sobbings
of your godmother’s sonnets

or the catatonic purrs
of your long lost uncle’s prose

may contain monkey
nuts & the other

best before last century
peaked in antiquity

i blame the belgians
the gypos & the methodists

sod this for a stare-off
with a freshly painted wall

( huff )

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jugband greens

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did the shoot really shoot
like a rascal blowing peas?

or is the shoot forced out
kicking like a drum

major marching on
as march is where the hare

boxes with their silhouette
maybe martians watch us all?

sound is bound in time
& from the thawing ground

goes another gasp
clasping at this foginess

wave with phantom hands
write us all a postcard

too soon like the moon
light reflects the sun’s smile

( ? )

…

rearrange strange

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tin whistle then
the ghostly folk men
in bright white coats

scrawl this morrow
blue is the new black
unslept in sigh

why is beyond
once upon mute swans
middle eight ten

cold winter day
grey like lady jane
old shuck’s breakfast

beans in a can
the turin shroud wink?
clouds below groan

dick turpin’s neck
turns like warwick’s earl
facing the gaze

rearrange strange
faith in her water
warmer than flames

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undercover, underpants

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feather dusters, feathered friends
dead ends, divs & dividends
kiss the swan & scribble on
feather dusters, feathered friends

paper tigers, paper planes
stripy cats & flying brains
roaring forms on soaring sheets
paper tigers, paper planes

apple presses, apple carts
sticky digits, treacle tarts
haunted orchards, misted us
apple presses, apple carts

power showers, power naps
sunday snoring, thinking caps
‘morning all’ the curtain calls
power showers, power naps

undercover, underpants
second suns & dancing ants
clutter, clatter – down but up
undercover, underpants

kitchen dressers, kitchen sinks
cheeky like a statue’s winks
on the sly with you in lieu
kitchen dressers, kitchen sinks

…

rhymebook annual

…

so january – oh, can you see
your phantom limbs, a fantasy?

dear february & feathered friends
the present’s span – it never ends

um, muddled march – just starch my shirt
a brighter white – not shades of dirt

yet april’s ape’s a jape, a shape
a floating cloak ( perhaps a cape? )

give may a spin – then let’s begin
with buttercups, a yellow chin

though broken june – will never tune
the moon’s kazoo – or his bassoon

so sing july, when thicket throbs
with cricket legs ( instead of gobs )

as august dusts – my dresser shelf
the rest is just ~ a woodland elf

would september – remember us
the scattered ash, an omnibus

of october – the ghostly year
& slowly so we … disappear

yes, november – is peppermints
then spot the cat, the leopard sprints

we’re december, the ember’s spark
we reignite ( each morning lark )

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a note at the back

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a poem for the sleeping earth

another paper plane to crash

in morning light, the shooting stars

become a silent poltergeist

the garden sings in jangled keys

the compost heap releases gas

alas & bless the second ess

in s.o.s – then d.i.y

yes, bolt each hole – your hermitage

awaits – escape the winter’s gape

( please process when available )

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