(c) Milton’s Cottage; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
Blind Tiresias
Rhythmically swaying
Iambic rapper
Muttering incantations
–
Committing morning verse
To pellucid memory
Ear cocked for milkmaids
–
Waiting enthroned in turmoil
illuminated by defeat
cherished hard won republic
brief lost earthly paradise
postponed for another eternity
another enlightenment
another bright spark
he worshipped the sky
on which she walked
till one day
it caved in
left them floundering
in sky blue
starshell fragments
sharing cold fish pie
trying not to scream
coats of silvery window
After the angel dust
shaving the tiger proved easier
than Murdoch had thought.
And, as it turned out,
what Chadwick had posited
was later proven true,
it was the skin and not just
the fur that was patterned.
they were all the same
just get over it
Next week a Zebra,
she decided.
‘ The giraffe might prove to be a tall order,’
said the Indian rubber man,
deftly reading her train of thought.
How they chortled
that evening over their
Barley wine and Camembert
People passing as
quicksilver phosphorescent
clarity begins
at the home where the heart is
passing strangers dissemble
Children are silly,
So Jack solemnly told me
Sat on a graffiti rock
Chin plinthed on six year old wrist,
That’s why grown-ups just get pissed
Grimbeau 