When the children you never borehave outgrown you with invisible tears they would have bawled.When the records you boughtgot scratched, becoming collectors’ items collectors never sought. When girlfriends that became exesrolled down the River Exe.When, over the River Thames in 1986,you missed out on playing pooh sticks. When gold and silver birds dinedon the steps …
Author Archives: aprettykettleofpoetry
Auditioning for me
Trying to write somethingI might read or I might singthe audience are blurry people in dreamsthat I never remember unless they drop onto the floor from beams. Record me, rather than make me repeat what I say.Spinning jenny jumpers with cotton lines are starting to fray.However far there is to goI’m going to tread on …
Bright On
Looking for a place with no past devils.A clean slate to start anew.Where the sea washes up and away pebblesAnd where what you might have done you still might do. Houselights glimmering on wintry waters.Lighthouse lights keeping you from autumn wrecks.Summer swim suits on sons and daughtersAnd whistle-welcomes on springtime decks. Everything’s going for a …
Mr Irritating
Mr irritating turns up at the worse possible time.Speaks when it’s meant to be a mime.Says the wrong thing or, if not, in the wrong way.Keeps everyone effortlessly at bay. Does things people would generally like to avoid.Seems quite happy when he should be annoyed.Has a bonnet but no bee.Mr irritating tries to sit on …
Holly Woodstar
Made good, and not just a pretty face.She started off with a different name in a different place.She played her roles on screenbut it was her private life that thrilled her public behind a scene.Yes, she drank, yes she stank – of money.Yes, she married and divorced- several times.And yes, was larger than life – …
Politicalculations
We are us.You are them.You dress.We wear the hem. We don’t.You do.We are the many.You are the few. 3 times table.Sums at school.Stark bollock nakedor wrapped up in cotton wool. Work it out for yourselfand when you dosee if it adds upand if the equation includes you too.
On My Couch
I lie on the sofaTelling me about myself.Little old me, belittling it all.Dead lonely, a coffin elf. The first thing that enters my headAs word associations process the data fed;What comes to mind with “the ties that bind”?Do-it-yourself, and the fear of being left behind. Do I play the victim? Would I say I wallow?Well, …
Passenger Pigeon
I passed by herelooking for shelter.Flocks of medisappeared for all to see. I must be on my way.Will you misquote me and what I didn’t use to say?
By Royal Appointment
The Royal pardon said sorry for not forgiving me at all.Famous people in their prime with obituaries sold in purgatory’s mall.Meanwhile I meantime, as is habitual.Somewhere someone is really living and about to die in a dawn dual. Stopping to pull the rug from under my feetThe red-carpet envoy skips, making excuses to everyone I …
Music Hall Countryside
A piano and a Wurlitzer were playing from a field next door.A gramophone record and a wireless from a meadow across the hall.A violin and an accordion from a stream 3rd floorand a xylophone and a chiming glass from an upstairs market stall. Typewriters tapped away, and words got scattered across sawdust moorsas sheep wandered …
