She Took Flight

STARLIGHT

Skimming past horizons

Fading light

One hundred thousand starlings

Take to flight

Into Starlight

Music folding

Falling over me

Like a memory under siege

Watercoloured canvas glowing bright

Fading black Fading night

Into Starlight

There’s a story still to tell

Pours like daybreak over me

And a star can’t cast a shadow

But its luminosity is

Starlight

PORCELAIN 

Sunrise on the southern plain

Awoken by the call

Glistening tarmac, heavy rain

Push aside it all

Rubber wheels forever on the friction

Of the hospital floor

And the terror of whatever

Waits behind those automatic doors

Casting doubt through saccharine grins

Where one life ends one more begins

Oh porcelain chipped on quivering lips

A medical apocalypse

Just behind the wall the joyful cries of a brand new life

But this fear just heightens the anticipation

In unflattering light

Oh make sense of it all

How in one moment something changes

Leaves you staring down a gaping hole

Oh how violent the knock

Cos by the springtime all the garden had awoken

But you had not

You had not.

WOMXN

Rule of thumb

Under the gun

Silencer

Sit the bar

Raise the bar

Balancer

But Emmeline and Ivy

Not secretly or quietly

But bravely and stalwartly

With both feet dangling

Like Rosalind, Grace Darling

Who's foresight was deafening

Still questioning and referencing

A source so intimidating

Stop questioning

Start Listening

She

Wife and mother

Undercover

Objectify

A tight clenched fist

An arm to twist

Demystify

Like Katherine and Dorothy

Confidently, patriarchy

Still mortified to clarify

A mind more worthy

Like Sonia and Greta

Inspire an armarda

So gallantly, not violently

For inequality.

THE GASHLYCRUMB TINIES

Poem by Edward Gorey

A is for Amy who fell down the stairs.

B is for Basil assaulted by bears.

C is for Clara who wasted away.

D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh.

E is for Ernest who choked on a peach.

F is for Fanny sucked dry by a leech.

G is for George smothered under a rug.

H is for Hector done in by a thug.

I is for Ida who drowned in a lake.

J is for James who took lye by mistake.

K is for Kate who was struck with an axe.

L is for Leo who swallowed some tacks.

M is for Maud who was swept out to sea.

N is for Neville who died of ennui.

O is for Olive run through with an awl.

P is for Prue trampled flat in a brawl.

Q is for Quentin who sank in a mire.

R is for Rhoda consumed by a fire.

S is for Susan who perished of fits.

T is for Titus who flew into bits.

U is for Una who slipped down a drain.

V is for Victor squashed under a train.

W is for Winnie embedded in ice.

X is for Xerxes devoured by mice.

Y is for Yorick whose head was knocked in.

Z is for Zillah who drank too much gin

WIND HORSES

Reincarnation

Elimination

Ice sculpture for the birds

Human nature undisturbed

Quest for more

From rugged peak

To river's shore

That fatal flaw

Leave behind the ones who trod before

Paint your palette green and blue

One last time observe the view

Trespassing to feel alive

Where only wind horses dare to fly.

BALLAD OF A DISTRACTED MOTHER

I crawl up from the river

Nod to the kingfisher

Thanks for the weather

Up from the river

To you

I crawl up from the river

I know that I can deliver

Up from the river

To you

I'm face down in the corner

Trying to be discreet

Queen of hide and seek

I'm down in the corner

For you

I'm face down in the corner

Cheap plastic jewels adorn her

Face down in the corner

For you

And I'd fight fire for you

If only you knew how it burned

I crawl up from he river

Spinning sycamore seeds around her

Up from the river

To you

I am under the covers

Ignore the clutter

Unsticking stickers

Under the covers

With you

I am under the covers

Ever present distracted moher

Under the covers

For you

And I'd fight fire for you

If only she knew how it burned

Face to face with her splendour

Complete surrender

Will she ever know just how much I love her

Distracted mother

With you