Grimbeau

Scroodles

Category: flash fiction

Three Chariots for Pluto

sillhouetees

 

—C’mon will ya, times running out you know
—As it has forever, Darling. Enjoy the frisson of the wait, the knotted ache, the acrid nag of doubt, the bilious suffle, the dank fulfilling disappointment of delay…
Darling squirmed at sea confounded, sulky, frowning, entrapped, stormy eyed. Port worked slow calm numbing Darling into dreams of old ship’s company. The first bottle barely touched the sides then the jabber started and the lights went wonky. Darling crashed. The house had been adapted for this purpose. A cottage hospital bed in stumbling distance, a sink to piss in, an uppy downy lift, handrails of various, drop down cupboards mind your head, various sticks and staves, bags of pills and sooth me ointments, an exercise ball called Ned. And the guards? He wrote, they confided with a smirk when asked. But not his real name, nobody reads it. Why so, you may ask. Because they had not never seen it. Unpublished then? Worse than that: unwritten. Has that helped? Not sure yet. Thirsty now. Quench it.
Sacrificed three spoonfuls of processed bulgar to the grumpy stomach gods before crossing a river of no return. Not in this atomic form. Michael White seems a nice chap. Goodhearted yet didactic. Why the yet? Implied contradiction. More like sloppy language. Some will never know a book. Rubber ham given a wide berth. Left out uncovered overnight splashlength from the tap. Fruit flies are harmless. No says a pear skin. Beethoven chord. Eighth sonate. Know he’s in the room. Intemperate but wait. Yet waits. It it time yet? Not really here at all. Try telling the clock. Just marches off nonchalant. Da da da dum dum. Irregular as. Arhythmic. Clogged.
Gentle snoring. Shower day. One in every two. Don’t wear out the skin. It bleeds. Rots without mind. And with it. What then? A scolding rebuke for afters. Suddenly you remember, there was no seeming trigger, try and garner detail, that’s when it gets dubious, a smell, a touch, something sensate, but it’s gone, so you fill the empty. Just let it be, let it rest a while. But it goes, the butterfly moves on. A glance. That tension in your neck melts. Tantric feels remote. Cheap pink fluffy slippers. Was that deliberate? And if so, so what? Oldest trick in the book. The no trick trick. None of us know what we get involved in. liars disagree. That’s what liars do. For good reason. Power plays. Epic sunsets past two days. Charcoal, golden, slow masses, subsumed by shadow, not in your pomp. Who cares if you don’t? Stumped. Strolling mind found absent. Seiche on water fills the sky. No reflection. Howzat? No need to really ask. Just kept walking. Funny old game bird. Head up arse in clouds. Mackerel springs, amber leaf, install smart meter at your peril. Swings and roundabouts. Sunshine on the copper slide. And the roundabout. Scary monster. Still turning with no one near. For the fallen, propelled centrifugal, thrown off. felt queasy all right. Every time after. Wet wood sombre stench. Cold as a witches. Found no mushrooms. Camouflaged by night. Glow worms ardour dank. Open a tin instead. Careful with the ax now. capillary pumphouse. Needles. Back to skin. Neck of Lamb to tenderise. Food for thought indeedy.

First poison songular, one eyed, jocular by elect. Here the yarn disintegrates, sugar rush beginning to suck, new toys to play with see, solo. Significant otter, Murdstone Memory,

chiffon wisps, misty graveyarn, drawn to it, nay compelled. Blame the weather that you say you make. Me is haunting me then is it. Dull ditch drudgery digging up dirt. Let’s pick

another spot. Say Casablanca. Ricks. Or is it Ric’s? up yer bum again, get off…Half term repose from Nursery rush hour, frozen over night some scream. Poor little mites seek

sanctuary in the mattress. Survival of the fattest. Me. Simms for a day. Sylvia, Sylvia, wherefore art house? Balance that book on yer head or you’re dead. Deportment bearing

poise. A Ginsborough Flicture. See it between the lines. Do it till your feet bleed. Post War austere. In the National Interest of the greater good they groomed you. Shove these fillets

in there, tuck your tummy in. steel corset a must. You must improve your bust. Ooo new nylons!

Themes of feelings to rote recite. Apple pie to order. Lashings of custard. O no you don’t— you are a starlet, baby. Oily lizard slimeball speaks pillow drool. Perm one from a cast

of plenty. Is that why she did it? More pricks than a pincushion. Over billiards eavesdropped. Evil snotties. Pimps sport warty cocks. Browned off with Bovil dregs or

Bisto paste. Hairy arsecracks, shirtails and gaiters, besocked, creaking floorboards, pulling out soon, receding tumult, light a Players. What’s my name? Saliva cesspit Ears

looking at you kid. Blackheads and beeswax. What big ears you have Grandpa. Think I’s gonna throw now. Take a peppermint. Only Fisher’s Friends. Quelle Fromage, Mon Dieu!

Stale Chanel, sweat beads form. Not little me. Cut. Pass the Gilbeys. About that part. Be in touch. Reborn a cliche. Whatever on earth happened, Pet? Got taken for a ride, but ate

Home Fish

 

 

aerga (2)

Rum cove was mill pond smooth that eve. The dray men laughed too loud for easy air. Water lapped hollow on the inlet. How far out is safe to row, both mulled. Still meant ill, sounds carry gurgles, echoes travel, stealthy, slurred.
—Spruce up your caboose with the neck of a goose! Said Mullins, brandishing his cutlass mock threatening a now or never pose.
Music bathed the gloopy ether. Seagulls squawked indifference. A sacrifice most Tuesdays if I feed the shumbunkin corn flakes, a shag sneered wracked by hawthorn
—Said seabass emerged its mammy’s lug, two full moons late, a guttersnipe once told us on the promenade, left lug mind the right were grommet bunged. No exit, clearly posted, neon flashes, AC wired…
—From sinister portals, indeed. Chewed over down the years, and thus delivered, ‘Hi, tis I, chance of sip of your sup?’ Beggar off big brute, I’ll have yer…’
—Guts for gators, probed a scoopers face. Who he? One or tother. Why it matters not. Time for the Klaxon hoot?
Klaxon Hooted. A bottle rocked up. The message read:
All their life was regulated not by laws, statutes, or rules, but according to their free will and pleasure. They rose from bed when they pleased, and drank, ate, worked, and slept when the fancy seized them. Nobody woke them; nobody compelled them either to eat or to drink, or to do anything else whatever. So it was that Gargantua had established it. In their rules there was only one clause:

DO WHAT YOU WILL
because people who are free, well-born, well-bred, and easy in honest company have a natural spur and instinct which drives them to virtuous deeds and deflects them from vice; and this they called honour. When these same men are depressed and enslaved by vile constraint and subjection, they use this noble quality which once impelled them freely towards virtue, to throw off and break this yoke of slavery. For we always strive after things forbidden and covet what is denied us.[20]:159
—Book twenty! Blimey there’s a tome. Mullins was flummoxed. Perks lingered over it, identifying Rabelais, but why now of all times. It was, he concluded, for diplomatic purposes, a red herring.
—It’s nothing. Let’s go home.
~

Some sort of sick kick from it must they get. Must be. Perverse. Inaudible mutters, more than a mime. Stop. Crank it again. Whassat he said, marzipan muel. More bloody pop-ups, start up of the day, the sec I go near it, starts egging you on, near to dare and down the stair. Magic pen beats all. Screens are for mere tourists, juss look at ArseboooK. Ulterior motives, but how I diverge. Indian summer of the Tory Party it seems. Dangerfield did it for the Libs. Farewell Georgiana, brief encounters with bliss on the grounds of a country piles. You know I met Lloyd George? Yes me father told me when I was knee high to a kneecap. Stop. Oint of it I ask you. that was eerily early the mist that was. Turd stone from the sundial. Judd blink & youd mishit. Bollox to Bognor ignored. South of a bog. Stands it thus up for reason? Process of elimination, my weird Watson. Je never said that thought I will. I know. Know. Know. kNow. Comma. Odd the things that float past. Waters off Cloyne/ Good stretch of the shanks. Hit anything now. You could always put a light on. What. Break up such bliss. Stay in touch. Of course or perhaps. Sure youre a lang aukd time lone sun. Down to the cardboard. In mere wheeze dan won. Get gone with you. juss being sillier. Look Ma no hands! And various other bits. Attstops inbetwean. Love comes in spurts. Buy one get one free. Death on the High Street. Peepul turn ahey. Selfies with my new friend DDearDept. Lokk wow it trndz. So now lingo gets born. A gnu renascence occludes.
Broke the ice. Just slipped out. Automatically. Reports dismissed on artifificial grounds. Wrong fonts condemned. Matter of decorum. Costume & Rickets. Mere Methodolology. Sjould be a Church of it. On. Ward. Armies argue over refs. Wrong type of earrings. Lackings of the daisical dEpartntt. Not future innit. Means mean ends. Conveyancing. Xtian soil dryers Todays lesson a swiped from the Book of Herman Two Sticks. Drumroll maestro pleeze. Bugger Bognor Bbackwards. Hard act to follow. Famous lasts. Me or the wallpaper beyond my means sod under another sod under. Blessems all. Ashtrays to ashtrays. Divil first by a nose. O’Himmel Heaven’s Above put that down. Fetlock snap. Juss bending down to pick up a peashot. Pop! That’s your lot pal. Here’s some teeth to gnash while wailing. Much obliged was he?
A bum’s tear it was appeared, attracted a caskful of stares, cleaved, spigotted, deerstalkered, up for the ruse, no soft feelings you understand, throbbing nasal duct, something in my eye precursor of girly weepies, matinee idol what fell from Grace. What was he doing on her & herself a married wannabe. Book of Life lies open. Untouched by humane hands on yonder coffee table. Walnut inlaid, caryatids adrorned. Grapes’n’all Lot of time input, hobbies take. Tender acts of wooden love. Down memory lame in splint. See who that is coming up. Bugger me the bishop Ric. Late of Bath and Wells. Jaunty little mancub. Tells frquent tells of pewstuff mishaps. Ups and downs. Exercise really. Stand up Stiffs turn left on the way out. That’s you told, milady. Conscripted belligerent over traces kicks. Bit off more than is proven chewable. Gumshield orange peel on linoleum. Never failed me yet. Charming ickle mancub. No sado of a doubt about it. Dribbling desert wine in the naval cavity of Dr. Sop. Fortify the under fours he said. Whatever gets you through the night Kris. Mantle of moi dreams…from hair shaked but never stern. Ummm…

bop

Touched
by a
film of frost,
th e
chill cascades
Waspishly
fro m the fanlight
Squirts
Little nips
O f morning,
Bikini weather.
Motorway pile up
neuronal
city women
fret more
about how
they look
than wee fish do.

Pastel shy-blue, sky-blue
off beige clouds

Twenty eight thousand
Miles out
just now

A space boulder passed
by my
Shoulder.

Chitterlings

crunchy nut cornflakes. But the cars. The cars are such a giveaway, roaring, strutting, revving in the frost.

–Brrrm, it’s a cold one, Cleo.

–Yes, indeed it is, fair Romeo. Let’s go for a spin.

For it is well documented that I detest dark mornings. Only last week I spoke passionately on that very same subject to a captive audience of soiled mugs and spoons as the kettled steamed and coffee reeked with promise of chitterling nibbles

For the Sheer Hell of it…

264676

 

Four chinooks beetle low underhead
describing a rough diamond formation
slow but faster than cars that kerb crawl past
I wonder how the giant laurel appears to them
As They flourish overnight
Picture all those roots crammed into a ballooning charcoal bucket
and then pretend to persuade me to give it up
as a bad job that never was never worth doing
Only instead to sidle off over the broken biscuit brown grass
Wing it on one engine back to base camp
smile back knowingly at some all weather gnomes
who count us out and count us back like orphans
up to their necks in sump oil wild lolling
wisely on a riddled crimson fence post
entangled in a spider’s knitting
briskly inside a pike eats the crackling radio,
Baltic salmon bask in the fridge, all lost at sea suffering
opiate withdrawal sweats we twitch & cringe
Then I see you sliding slippery eel wise, sending us a sign from beyond,
which when it is decoded reads
‘we’re not ready for you yet. Pal’
~
Till all the seas run dry, my nose.
Till all the seas run dry
Abdabs scream blue murder
Till all the seas run dry with blood
When all the seas run dry…
Enforced radio silence over wrought after a hard night’s day
Churning down the dairy with hairy Mary
wary of her sudden subtle mood swings—
the purpose of this mission: moan
~
Big match called off by bye bye blackbirds
wretched car phones yelp outside
world made worse by cheap shite airlines,
five hoppity hops to nirvana time
& limp back on yer tod,
sip true levelling vodka juice ,
no sleep till dawn for tribal drones
passing over after bringing down
patchwork dirigibles on burnt out homes
Ratty sits now sucking an olive
Now spilling a Martini dry
shaken but unstirred by those loud bangs
No hard feelings where there aint none in
Yesterday the pike with jam on
Today the frozen salmon cordon
Encouraging the Privet hedge to part red waters
Will you pass milk & honey
The silken money
To mellow my chlorinated slaughter
For if you not for who
Mirror under water cracks
Call grimalkin get hope back
I am hearing you
In conversation
Singing through the nosegay of fucked up floribundal
Only in conversation mind you
~

I run things over in my head occasionally
Deliberately or by accident
Take the right option
At the top of the stairwell
For an example of this
Sallow mango tigers burn
Flagrant tongues lick upwards
Melting toy balloons drop fire
Withered moulded plastic chairs
Empty overnight commode
Circus macabre summer fayre
Shriek to no avail it seems from here

~
Did you not capture the moment just now—
Especially in that droll incursive October Wind
As malfeasant tides surged fast & loose
Now time trudges wetter softer
Sandshoe shuffle shod in sloppy sludge—
snide red caps doffed hide furtive grins
Faces crescent—shaped venally daft
Trying to zone in, get a grip, any grip,
be rid of this, this, this…
profane, pernicious accidie. Look out
Dai the Morf & Wily Dan confer
to hatch a slick masterplan midstream
to swamp the market in eiderdown
or farm mink in Chipping Norton Town
or timewatch daily brexit as life goes on
like a walk in the baked potato park
—so many murders these day you dont
know where to not step first
~
Each one a new one on closer inspection
A different case of upstairs
Did I say no chess today I may fret—
Well so what if not
Put a derringer to my head
And just keep missing
Man did I live to regret it
First time Crispin smiled upon
His golden demoiselle, an inhabitant,
She signed, of a country of the capuchins,
So delicately blushed, so humbly eyed,
Attentive to a coronal of things
Secret and most paticular. Second, upon
A ruddy counterpart, a maid
Most sisterly to the first, not yet awake
Excepting to the pad of motherly footsteps, but
Marvelling sometimes in round shaken sleep.
Then third, a braid still dun flaxen in the night,
A creeper under mellow jaundiced leaves. And fourth,
Mere blusteriness that gewgaws jollified,
All din and gobbleygook, blasphemously pinkened.
Gonna hit frilly five today they say
Sky seems the limit round here no doubt
Off Asylum Avenue when smoke churns
Chelsea Moll makes sticky buns shine
No matter what the weather does
Use up the wrinkled grapes on the quiet
Man did I live to regret it
Saying good things about people you can’t smell sounds daft
Almost as if you made it up: derisive
Crossed out, obliterated truths
Blown up, a put up job, hiding some
malign agenda under scarlet pimples
The words escape me so I stumble round playing blind man’s bluff,
Internal bear pits, persuasive, lure me out

Noman at Korny Tablet (feeelin Auk up)

ModiglianiPortrait

Crowded out by here over hear crowded outFacts are simple facts are straight end:
heterosax soots water frontispeice

bone dry nymphos dusty bathe
fucking with our head-pristinesses 
any old iron contra-basses

sow From crowded dawn droop to barren dusk dross
daily diddle dawdle cross cussed county 
Rosscommon to barren loss Muckross 
winkling sly nap watercresses hid under mildewed leafmoulds
eyam a bird not a hawk sparrow
whish whooosh eye am gun

 

Beaver Balls

Beaverbollocks

 

Working hard at it she she claimed, beavering away, making coffers and indiscreet lagoons with yellow sundries from the ash cart windfall— a thankless task but someone somewhere must step up to the plate, try their very best, give their all, one hundredth of a percent at a time— so a thousand beavers would sort it if they were so inclined would they?
Downhill racers struggle without gravity, what fog feels like hanging in the callow strikes me, those muddy cattle look opaque in this light, like their doing untimed cryptic crosswords, me I stick to sticks and stones, pretty square some say, cubists so they claim but I know the type, grave robbers and enchantresses with altitude sickness…
Glassworks breaks me up and leaves me shatter in tiny pieces like a lake of prisms after rain, a ripple passes through her, where has my drive, my desire gone? No point in asking, all is done for training porpoises to jump hoops and technobabble…give up the shooting match altogether, she thought, I’ll never leave this place, just push soft unforgiving walls— words really haunt
She who sleeps sinnest not, I was told on waking, downstairs a dog runs through the smoking room, we climb the steppes in bandaged boneless feet, get spotted seeking Shelter from the Storm in a little hilltop village called Pat Buchanan for some unknown treason, the Yanks were around a lot in those old cold war days…
Just put it all together, two by two. Wonders then will never cease, it’s just that you won’t notice now you know the knack of it. Swing and roundabouts will conspire, playgrounds caked in cake, a robin shits on the aspidistra. Look what happens when the window’s are left open?

Incidental Muse

tumblr_nbmf1vsYil1td81kyo1_500

In a dream I spoke with the Cyprus-born,
And said to her,
“Mother of beauty, mother of joy,
Why hast thou given to men

 

“This thing called love, like the ache of a wound
In beauty’s side,
To burn and throb and be quelled for an hour
And never wholly depart?”

And the daughter of Cyprus said to me,
“Child of the earth,
Behold, all things are born and attain,
But only as they desire,—
As luck would have it
the goddess of love pitched up
out of the cerulean
blue earthenware amphora
I grabbed the opportunity to inquire—what’s gives
with the aching
burning throb in the
little toe on my left foot,
She had a look & said

Look here manchild, desire’s in there
pulling the strings
Believe me.
Take my word for it,
I really do know about these things.

Desire, huh? I just thought it was
a hen’s eye corn
giving me the run around

 

“The sun that is strong, the gods that are wise,
The loving heart,
Deeds and knowledge and beauty and joy,—
But before all else was desire.”

Smoke on Our Walter

muffintime

Be bedazzled bot by the clumbrous pongs
rising unmoonlily from the jimcrack froth—
plumscrumptious filo pockets crumple sofa titbits
— enter stooge stage left bearing firewood & chippolatas
grinning from leer to leer (flashing black gnashers) —
ickle rood riding herd after three hard daze at the orifice,
slathering sweatshop slavver, rectal bleeds (occupational hazards)
meet someone’s needs— redundant runcible spoons for example—
f-f-fictive day doodles crayonise blank sable screens
(Yawn long to fill the gap- gap)
Removal men in socks pad about warily in fear of chicken neck complaints (knights of the goiter no doubt)· some things best left- defiant marjoram will not be sorely missed – pastures new neatly tonsured bridlepaths and rat runs.
Begins a torrent from a shifty rampage? Methinks prefer not to think not just in case.
Monsoon babies know the score do-dah do-dah
Monsoon racetrack eight miles high oh-do-da-day
Dawn on the fourth of July, opaque or what!
What! No Quips?