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* * They chose that name for you because they thought it could never be shortened, so apologies for going ahead and doing so, but I reckoned you wouldn’t mind, as you always welcomed the attention. You were a house martin in many ways, reluctant to leave the nest…….and what a monstrous nest it was……a… Read more
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(Not quite the same set of circumstances, but a warning from history all the same…) Marine * She is the monster yet unknown, not many sightings from this shore, a keen predator in murky waters, her favoured element the fathomless depths to which things sink. She’s a connoisseur of the mud layer, scooping up the… Read more
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Ooh, Allegra Stratton—damn my Spectator subscription—you’ve just been re-distributed by No 10—you’re no longer gonna be first lady of the blue room presser—tidying up the PM’s ‘ums’ and ‘aahs’…and those cute page stickies stuck inside your power file are now just a colourful accessory signifying nothing… Shame that poison chalice slipped betwixt cup and lip–your bespokes for a clown… Read more
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Although he did not condone the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston (17thc slave trader and local philanthropist) the act ‘was a piece of historical poetry’ according to Bristol mayor, Marvin Rees, in an interview with ‘The Guardian’ on June 13th, 2020. They don’t think much of your history,the local partisans have punkedyou over… Read more
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A very slight revision of a response poem written 10 days into Lockdown as a contribution to Poetry Month in April. I am a confirmed caseof poetry incomplete,still wintering,while the birds out thereare chirping,way ahead of the curve,perched on their high branchesnotched with data points,blithely unaware that allhuman life beneathhas been reduced toa series of… Read more
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A poem from 2018. ** You are my Tiangong-One,a lost ship of science, adrift in radio silence,beyond the reach of any mission control,an old piece of space junk with a mind of its own,dancing the last celestial waltz,and I dread the approaching zero hours,when you’ll be spat out like a plum stonefrom the greedy atmosphere,a… Read more
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I wonder exactly where we’re heading, if it’s safe to cross, but everything feels skewed and the perspective can’t be judged, I need a straight answer from the Many-Eyed God of Provisional Road Safety, but he prefers to keep me guessing, saying with a glinty laugh, don’t be so pedestrian, you’re missing a golden… Read more
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Abundance is there for the taking, and we are in deep, twirling with the planktonic flagellae wafted by the frills of mighty sea slugs as they retreat towards the abyssal plain, lips fastened to vestigal truths, while starry-eyed shoals in pursuit of elusive riches weave in and out of loamy loopholes, without brushing… Read more
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They have been betrayed by an elite, their bananas should be turning the corner in imperial measure, splendidly bunched together all pomp and circumstance, complete with grocer’s apostrophe, somewhere between that small parade of shops, selling useful things like balls of string and sherbet dabs. They want to turn the clock back to that… Read more
lise colas 