Plus ça change

I remember when Margaret Thatcher entered No. 10 with the words of St Francis of Assissi and Tony Blair to the sound of Things can only get better. Both in defiance of reality.

This time it's strong and stable, working arrangements, and new politics.

Ludo

Ready. set,
hundred metre dash, off
before you know,
ready,
ready,
hit-drop-run-run.
wait,
wait
run, run, home. Again
hit-drop-run-caught
out,
oh,
but, angled for though
a surprise,
on the board
playing chess from the inside
not sure where to move
or when, or why,
or whether there’s pleasure
in another piece captured
till, didn’t see that coming,
kicked feather-flight so high
I can see the whole game now
every racket ready to
smash me into the
Netball! Yes!
Game! Match! Tournament!
Victory! in fantasy –
in fact I find
whist too slick for me
I knock,
lay my bones down,
quite dominoed now
told each card to play
in my final cribbage.

Pen

A pen is
not a word

a word is
not this shape

the shape is
not a sound

the sound is
not a thought

a thought is
not a pen.

Fountain

Fountain




Described by stylus into the

parterre, a fountain: in design

quatrefoil, lilypads perhaps,

the waters of creation held

by a low concrete wall, its eye,

a double Janus-head, addressed

the four corners of the round world,

stone-blind. Its north face was carved as

a child, the next a chimera,

the third was that of a soldier,

and the final was agèd, each

spouted limpid water as though

it were given truth, the life-cup,

the tale of wealth and bought vision,

as though it were cheap as bone, and

all the splashed blood were washed away,

forgot, and each hour o’ the clock

a watchman’s shout, a phallic plume

declared time’s subjugation,

the Sisyphean victory.








.

Boxing Day

Boxing Day


The future of flesh:

bitter chocolate

and sweet regret.

Passed

sped past, trop vite,

a boy, 10 or 11,

white shirt, worried

face anxious, perhaps,

to be home.

Moments later

a disturbance of the air.

A death and a wake.

Against the prevailing

When the wind drops

body lightens,

steps lengthen,

home quicker, warmer

but, except to draw breath,

feint, and come back

all the harder

the wind never stops.