tit for tat

POEM CHAPEL

Cliche as it sounds and
Contrary to expectation,
This poem is a chapel
Where criminals may beat
On the door - seeking sanctuary

WRITING IN THE DARK

Writing to friends
In the dark hoping
The slopes of my letters
Join up good and that when
I wake up it's not

Just some comedy loop the loop.
I don't know any of you -
Is that why were close?

Yes don't know you folks...

Yet I believe a stranger
Will never kill,
Hurt, or cancel out
These bright hopes.

DREAM

Dream til the sunrise
Fills your eyes with
Things beyond
Manipulation.

THE TAPE DECK

Are you concentrating?
Time to speak Mr Smith
On love childhood your
Obsessions
Did you breathe
Use the contraption
We put in your chest

Did u enjoy
Your life what a life
We gave you a life... (click)

Tape (rewind) tape
Too fast...(szeez-banga)
On nothing mu..(click) as we
Press unravel your
Silver tongue

SAVIOUR

With devious thread
You sew up my eyes
Beat me blue then

Snip those eyes open
So you can be seen
To be my saviour

SCRAWLING...IN LOVE

Love is a silky
Molten nib of ink

HOW TO PROVE
YOUR IDIOT CREDENTIALS

Open the throat
Gulp in moist air
Form dozens of vowels mixed
With liberal consonants

Dress up as Boris Johnston
Hire a marquee and crates
Of Beaujolais and wonder -
Is your 2nd novel any good?

AT THE CIRCUS

Roll up roll up for
The fun-of-the-fair!

See the
Sweet talking
Wire walking
Chance taking
Lip stick wearing
Obesity sharing
Bear hugging
Testosterone making
Freak 'O' nature...bloke

RED BLOODIED ANGEL

The notches on my spine
Are hung with rainbows

My arms are made of wavy materials
My breath is the stuff of wings

I put down my tools
My X-Box, my roll up

I want good things now.

TREE-ANGELS

Every tree is an angel
That sky-dived into the earth
And spread it's fingers
Into the moist ground.

SEARCHING FOR THE CENTRE

I'm an exciting advert for
Blonde auburn mousy straight curly
Hair - obese svelte pear shaped
Maverick kid-mogul - an opinionated
Shy tongue tied pathalogical
Liar - called Poet

***

ME ME ME

I grew from an embryo
Learnt to swim
With eyes closed

They put something
Fluttering in my chest
(It gives me no end
Of silly trouble)

I rode the red chute
To greet light,
To greet breath

Felt from day one
The overpowering need
To press the flesh.

***

I - SINGULAR

I am the dot
In the centre of the pupil

The real smile behind the
Canvas hide of Mona Lisa

I am myself
(Do you hear this
Who is doing the publicity here?)

I Am I

All external - all history -
Almost - lets face it - Dead.

NO CONTEST

In a no holes contest
Between fur and flesh,
I know I'd come off second best.

BEARS IN THE WOODS

I'm a lonely human
Prone in my log cabin
With a primed imagination
Rows of tins and jars

And the wood outside full of
Jelly noses and two hundred
Pounds of starkly curious
Fur claw and muscle

FISH AND FLYTRAP

I bait my trap with fish
Heads, wait for the
Desperate bears...

But they're
Caught inside the
Wonder of Winter
Sucking on the roots
Of their trees

DREAMINGS OF THE REEF

Someday I will have more
Energy, from a larger than
Expected crop of shellfish -

Someday I will dive down
To the boat where I was
Lost to civilisation

And struggle back with good things
In brass and paper to read, a
Playboy t-shirt, the temptation
Of crated corned beef

And for the first time in over
A decade, lying under my tree,
I will be able to write that
Carved delicacy called poetry.

THE CAVE

My deluxe home
Rooted in strata
Covered in slime and
Violently baked all year,

Somehow leaks when I
Remember my childhood

WHITE MAN DEVIL

Tracks of ships
Tracks of vertical clouds
Minefields
Hidden in the bush.
This white man burns...

ISLAND JUICE

A mackaw flies
I feel the juice
Running over my
Roughened tongue -

Smell the fragrance
As you crush a perfect
Grape, representing
This island
Were marooned on

My feet plant
Crisp indentations
Under an scalpel moon

The sea sucks the beach
And nothing here
Can arouse us
From our deaths

RED IMAGINATION

Love a link
From wing to beak
Break the shell

*

Tears in an inferno
Of handwritten notes

*

Cracks in the soil of
The tongue, signs of life?

ASHES

No man can
Live long on cold ashes -

Yesterday the fire came
In war, then hot smoke.
Everything was destroyed

Now my body is charred -
I look at my heart
Cold as a stone -

Nothing gold red or green
Can live there anymore.

THE PARTING

Tears are daggers
Falling from
A glass ceiling
Into my heart

Words are spikes
To impale the moon
And sun on -

How am I going
To make it right,
When our Milky Way
Is off it's hinge

And the whole world
Erupts with 1000
Unresolved emotions.

BRIDGES

Were all culpable
Of some crime

All I want is sunshine
From your face to mine

WAX LYRICAL

A woman
Finds a friend on a train
And her face comes alive
Softens like wax

ADAMS APPLE ALLERGY

My apple allergy
Makes my lips swell

Then I look like Eve
And feel like hell.

THE SUCCUBOUS

Bathed in white light
Delicious as icecream
She slides into your head
You lick light fondue
Textured wings...

But notice as in a dream,
As your passion takes control
(and you bite a piece out of
Her sugar coated halo)
Theres the hint of a red
Reptilian tail, swaying
Between Pretty Polly legs.

THE BUILDER

Anything real we have was built.
Most objects and thoughts given
To others were good...

But one day our life will be taken away
And all those ideas and walls will sway.