The man with the budgie perched on his nose – a poem
The man with the budgie
perched on his nose stood solemnly
under the broken neon sign,
still flickering,
like an injured rainbow,
while a naked splinter of light bore down
from above
carving through the tar-dark night
And in the lightning-strike
Of rays blue-white
Crashed a thought
“I am the refuge for a bird.”
And his lips forged
A long, deep, crevasse of a smile
That just for a while
Shone bright
Like the flash of a star
Of a wish come true
A homecoming from afar.
And the bird chirped a single note
And the darkness subsided
Notes of thanks – avian, human – collided
And for that moment
The world felt safe.
Infidelity – a mirror poem
An opening
That glow of a moment
As you slipped your fingers under my cupped palms
Staring into my green-wide, greed-lined eyes
Smiling
Unpicking my composure.
You sensed an animal chink in me
Without compunction.
I sensed your persistent, probing quest to lever me wide leaving me
Exposed and troubled
Like the skin of the baby in the stroller beside me
Devoid of protection from the sun.
I pulled my hand away,
My thumb fiddling with my wedding ring,
My heart closing down importunate thoughts
****
My heart closing down importunate thoughts,
My thumb fiddling with my wedding ring,
I pulled my hand away
Devoid of protection from the sun
Like the skin of the baby in the stroller beside me.
Exposed and troubled,
I sensed your persistent, probing quest to lever me wide leaving me
Without compunction.
You sensed an animal chink in me,
Unpicking my composure,
Smiling,
Staring into my green-wide, greed-lined eyes
As you slipped your fingers under my cupped palms,
That glow of a moment.
An opening.
The Animals’ Christmas Party – a poem containing a line that is an acronym of my full name
The elephants are trumpeting
A civet jig on rink
The snowballs in the ice-crisp air
Are flung by grinning chimps
The turkey-gorged orangutans
Down wine, flamingo pink
Whilst the tigers sipping gin slings
Are far too pissed to think.
Snowflake stars are shimmering
In puppy eyes aglow
And ostriches are shimmying
To party-song disco
Koala carol singers are
Drowned out by Status Quo
And the hippo’s snoring that
Crescendoes long and slow
The hyenas are wassailing
and causing quite a fuss
The fire ants wave their sparklers
Amidst the fairy dust
Harmonising Noels by
The carolling pandas
Wish creatures large and creatures small
A wonderful Christmas.
