Panto tuna lute
open gee gnomic
ale eminent tory heir gone
tomorrow sorrow scars
Desultory smoulder
Pine cones gloaming wormcast
Seashell hermit crabs
Grumble gruesome gulls gambol
Shirtless maggots candy floss
straw fedora hats
Buttons elopes with Blue moon
Sickert sicks up cockles
Muscles lifts bar belles
St. Trinian’s run riot
Beside the seaside
Beside the sea
Hungry bard.
Tub of lard.
Ate the Shard
& Gherkin.
PC Mod.
Lazy sod.
Missed him.
He was shirkin’.
He threw the telly out the window.
No glass broke.
It was a silent defenestration
The volume was muted.
The dog ran out for a keek,
to see if there was anything
behind the adverts
and returned unsated
with some gaudy wires
tangled up in his copious locks.
Voices hear off. Who’s that?
Sotto voce, surely not…
Laryngitis? Going round.
Dan the Man,
very quiet, very soft.
Hard of hearing what?
Panic: King of Song breaks out!
Windows flung shut,
open air freshener
acrid Lavender.
Look out window, see blind woman,
shout hello, silly me
I can’t hear her, radio off,
mute mate shows up, funny looks.
Is it me or you? Tragic
You me: who we? Comic
Heads start to implode.
All I said: ‘Nice Day!’
watch blind woman talk away.
Below decks I ate wild mushrooms in scrambled eggs,
warm Parma ham,and a choice, prime cut, brown bap,
Oodled in buttery herbs, then, replete,
ascended , fortified to sullen work
after a digestive puff
A glimpse of sun is better than none,
must learn to be more grateful for these, my gifts,
the vessel drifts, time floats, ice too.
Less temperate climes, incursive east wind,
will blast and burn, singeing our lashes
saying only we have committed sin
a mortal sin, the sin of not being them.
Leeward, a cacophony and splashes
Dolphins, a school, weirdly mocking, unabashed.
1
Worsted, Tweed, Galician calicos, reamed
cotton screed, diaphanous silks, dour,
coarse linens, Chinese screen tableaux
of mislaid epochs, safe and unsafe tapestries,
sad stacked in the old mead hall, the conference centre,
the hubristic hub of soft arrogance now
Abandoned.
2
The once sure folk have fled, melted and mutated,
The meek ones headed for the hills, they crouch
and mooch grumpy, sucking stale breadsticks
in their holes, the old caves and calcified barrows.
The diehards fought foolhardy rear-guard actions –
smouldering stockyard bone stooks stand pyrrhic
Sacrifice
3
With the Labyrinthines gone away, nature is displeased,
Ever abhorrent of void it convenes
Bison, heck, leopard, eel and titmouse,
Louse, curlew, ptarmigan, to settle
a modus of repair. They soon conclude the obvious:
You are only as good as your last, worst
Algorithm
Bleak midwinter light
Flowers bloom trees without leaves
Labile distortions
Spurts (crumbs!)
after (post) noon
Tai chi medicine (ballet)
Sugar (candyfloss) plum
Hobbyhorse (barber’s sugarstick) whrligiggl
AJDBRCHSSD(TIC)AAJJIDSCHUSss
Options left open (both ends burning)
Orange (segmented)pith & zest
Sssszzzlick spillage
(sudden) rushing blood
Learnt forget foulness
Sanguinity (crimsom kingsmen) surge out
Falstaffian (Buster Bloodvessel) rogue
Put a sock o(n) it
Nelly (kuh) dem Oliphant
Eeek! A mousey (Jeremy)
Free range (horse whisperererer) hard boiled oeufs
Never (chronological tome) overcook
Quench poached water (mill on’ t floss)
PS Eliot (Gorgeous Gorge)
Ongoing natter
random chronic gibberish
still work in progress
virgin walnut oil
unhurried lapping
waters flow uphill
Grimbeau 