starling minus star
german minus car
homuncular mamba
quinquireme nirvana
trireme quillabamba
lamb passanda
calls Miranda
crazed veranda
When she died
Yes she died
Silent convulsive tears
Erupted deep down
In imagined diaphragm
Yes she’s dead real dead
Someone busy said
Proffering a chair
‘Is this the dead chair?’
after a pause one asked
A blue dark phone rang
‘He showered
he shaved,
he came back from the grave.
Lazarus…
Lazarus…’
~
The daily drudge is on.
Walk away, walk away.
Up and down the garden path
fetch your underwear.
Walk away, walk away
One step, two step…
collapse on the prickly pear.
Walkaway, walkaway
~
‘Sea above us,
sky below,
we’re upside down,
head to toe!’
We got morning, we got day
It ain’t raining, it ain’t grey
Need a shower, need a shave
only love from love can save
Ate cake before bed,
coffee found congealed
intact, redeemable: stirred,
revived, microwaved.
Stay of execution granted
Just three hours before deadline –
brutal brinkmanship
orders from the DA
reprieved to death row
there’s no place like home
green, green grass
to touch, taste, smell
Each dawn I live.
*
Magnesium sulphate, Dear
To rouse you from the torpor?
Salt of Epsom Downs
Mined by horny-handed sons
Of merchant bankers
& dowager duchesses
On sabbatical
From badger baiting
Ten…Eleven…Twelve.
Prime Minister’s Question Time
Who killed Cock Robin?
My dad’s deader than your dad.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Never in the field of human debris
Will the right honourable mental case…
You put your left leg
In your left leg out in out
Shake it all about
That’s what it’s all about – Oi!
Coming upon nine.
Something’s happening round here
Burning onions, tincture of molasses,
burning ground, quicklime pits,
call withdrawn enabled,
false razor wire eyelash,
brunette Lillibulero,
crazy gown drape flourish,
staircase winding
round and round
like a teddy
bear hug
Battle of Britain
When hurricanes spitfire
The first of the few
shoplifting Woolworth’s blind
no security cameras
in the seventies
~
Hercules and Apollo eleven
Led me into a life
Of Saturday morning crime
With twenty two pence change
Just enough for glue
A Wimpy Bender
Grimbeau 