lOSt at ThE CAfE

 Empty coffee cup

L’addition

Stuck

Between saucer and cup

Sultry sun

Wicker seat

Accordion beat

Another cigarette

Marking time

Blue smoke

Hangs 

Like a cloak

Marble top table 

Room for two

Blue ashtray

Full of stubs

Plane trees

Cool shade

There she is

Cool white

Flowing dress

Knowing yet unknowing

Her eyes caress

Scan the scene

Pass me like a has been.

Lovers we will never be

She sits alone.

Pression

Sips, sips

Her scent crushes all around.

I chink the change

Figaro folded

I will never know.

21/02/2022 21:45-22:00

tRAin

 Train draws in, lives renewed 

Hand through the window open the door

Step down, municipal smell of station

Journeys end for some.

Mind the gap,

Case first, bag second, travel done.

Whistle blown , slam , slam ,slam,

Green flag

Onward change for others,

Car,bus, taxi,plane

Possibly another train

Facing forward facing back

Hand luggage on netting rack.

Passing stations full of faces

Wrapped in scarves 

Men with papers ,

Girls with pushchairs

Children bundled from the fog

Non stop through the platforms 

Hurtling, rails singing, 

Doppler,

Dop   pler

Dop ,Dop 

Dop Dop

Dop Dop

Swan 

Vesta 

Telegraph and Times

No Smoking,

Crossword.

Compartments.

Platform slightly on a curve,

Sound comes first 

Busy people clutching hands

Step back , fear of suction.

Black figure, solitary at platforms end

400 tons , 100mph

Here it is 

Wind on face

Close now , 

timing is everything.

One step, 

Drivers eyes

Obliv……………….

05/02/2022. 20:45-21:15

rooT

 Look down at the earth

Long shadows spill from my feet

That Shuffle in the dust of bygone days

Clouds of memory skip away on the breeze

Stone in the palm

Smooth and cool.

The mirror below, shaded pool

Invites the belligerent rock

Graceful arc from the launch

Motion slowed but no recall

As inertia fails, it starts to fall

Ignorant the mirror sleeps

Catastrophic broken skin

The rock is swallowed to the mud

Leaving undivided ripples

Infinite acceleration

Gentle waves lap the bank

Spent concentrics going nowhere

Like the feet that shuffle dust

Unsure which path to follow.

30/11/2021 23:00-23:17 

mY FRi- end

 I walk with my friend assumption

Who guides my thought from the minute I wake 

Automatic on assumption, drifting from one moment to another

Assumption I’ll wake

Assumption I’ll breathe

Assumption I’ll eat and drink

Assumption I’ll walk and talk

Assumption that you’ll be there.

But what if assumption is no longer my friend

How do I function, without assumption.

What if what I assume is now a void, to avoid.

Assumption gone, to be

Replaced by my enemy  , Guess,

If I walk with Guess, he is or isn’t there beside me

Unknown if I wake, or breathe, or eat or drink

I can only guess these things may happen

Like a guess you will return 

Not assumption 

19/11/2021 21:10-21:22

mOldeN y(ears)

The golden years are supposed to be

That time when you relax 

and enjoy the fruits of labour

And sit back with your Stack

Increasingly however as I now approach the age

The time I have been waiting for 

Has now turned into rage

I thought the golden years would surround me with my gold

But I find now that to my cost 

I’ve great big piles of mould

Mouldy bits around the house

I’ve mould now in my car

My dog has mouldy bits on him

I’ve mould in my guitar

My wife she tries to mould me

Into something I am not

But that then goes for every man

I’m afraid that’s just his lot

I’ve a mouldy bit around my bath

And mould now in the shed

I bet if I pull it out

I’ve mould behind my bed

But if I could just replace the mould

with piles of shiny fluff

I would be very rich indeed

And wouldn’t give a stuff.

09/12/2021. 17:10-17:23

 

BriD(g)e

 The journey to your heart

Is littered with intentions

Like walking to the bridge

That you forgot to mention

And standing on the parapet

Reaching for your love

My arms outstretched before me

Releasing all the doves

Hoping one will catch your eye

my head now bowed in sorrow

So I vainly hold the mirror

To reflect the tomorrow 

And walking  to the middle now

Of the river that it spans

Pausing , gently breathing

As we slip each other’s hands

Beating now in unison

Slowly pacing out

Steps upon the pavement

We cannot live without

Entwined with love together

Like the English rose and briar

We pledge our love forever

That’s forged in cosmic fire

I kneel at the alter 

of your freely given heart

And hoping that chains we have

Never break or rust apart

As bound we are as one in life

So as in death

We will remain as one until our last immortal breath.

cUP BorED

 What lives have been in these cupboards

A hundred years of knives and forks

Bits of string , spent wine corks,

Pocket knives and paper clips

Old lipstick to stick on lips,

Note pads , pens, pencils and rubbers,

All have rested in these cupboards,

Sitting in the darkness, waiting to be opened

Staring at the chink of light where the handles broken,

Then one day  it’s quiet space

no longer shuffled into place,

But heaved on to another home

Bumped and barged along the stones

Shovelled out into the bin

But oh what’s caused all this sin

Some one died ?, a broken home?

Or someone who just lived alone,

Now smelling of a lick of paint,

Previous memory now gone faint

New occupants of the cupboard

Note pads pencils and the rubber.