Recent Published Poetry

Recent Published Poetry

mod rock road

i don’t live
without risk

it’s natural
a part of life

i do the first thing
that comes to mind

every time i respond

i simply react

there’ll be consequences
regardless

so i do it

it’s expedient
it’s necessary
it’s my job

i have somewhere to be.

‘mod rock road’ first published November 2023 The Closed Eye Open Issue X edited Daniel Morgan Issue X.pdf - Google Drive

things

[i need not know]

you are a divorcee
lonely
living with aged parents

reliant on dumpster food

complex health issues
and off your medication

now incontinent
and unemployable

while alongside me
as a passenger
on public transport

from which a seat change
is a humiliation.

First published At Maya’s Micros Edited by Maya Highland January 18th, 2024
Maya’s Micros Ed. 26 – The Closed Eye Open

at the reading

i quickly
became uncomfortable

realizing
i did not fit in

Jack said my notebook
looked like a bible

i sooked off
overcome with memories
that still creep me out

with behaviour modification
working insincerity

his wife asked
why i was in the corner
and i joked about being a dunce

you know like school days

it fell to the floor lame as a byline

and i wondered if a linguist
could improve my diction

someone who knew better
to help me converse
so that when i opened my mouth
it did not simply sound ‘he brew’

finally i slipped away
caught Jack’s eye

nodded my farewell

i shan’t do that again
too many old men in the world

the drive home was a bastard.

‘at the reading’ first published Impspired Magazine 1st December 2023 edited by Steve Cawte Geoffrey Aitken – impspired  Facebook

 

yesterday/today/tomorrow

it appears
daily

the news

cannot stop
some people

making it credible

regardless of
               popularity

First published in STREETCAKE Magazine Nikki Dudley & Trini Decombe Managing Editors pronouns: she/her March 2024 issue_89.pdf (streetcakemagazine.com)

cap in hand

there’s an irony

in that
camouflage hat

worn
by the ‘open mic’ poet

who wishes to be
heard

though not seen.

first published at Livina Press in Issue 7 by E-i-C Laci Felker

livinapress.com 

one street removed

now i only imagine
walking Portabella Road

the Electric Cinema ahead
railway overpass beyond

Club membership card in-hand
for comfort and choice seating

with lipped cigarillo
watching a screen modernity

now only flash backs
of Boomtown Rat ambiguity
coloured by acid punk converse

defiantly belonging
to a past

awaiting new age interpretations
to identify road music

for untouchable destinations
               lagging in my mind.

first published in unusual work Issue 37, April ‘24