Forgotten Witness

 

The stone stood, a relic marking where once the slaughter of the innocents took place. Who now cares for the truth- they were bait for enemy lured to defeat or the myth- a nation born out of struggle. Only songs remember why—the bodies, with the nation, long since dust.

How not to ask for a Loan

‘I don't get it.’  
            ‘Its simple really, I have invested—’
            ‘Spent’  
            ‘Invested my bonus in a sports bike so I can scrap the car.’ 
            ‘You don’t have legs?’
            ‘Dad, it's too far.’ 
            ‘So I dig into my pockets, have bread taken out of my mouth and you save the planet?’

For better or for worse

We are going out whether you like it or not
think of the glamour when we are on the yacht.
I'm on the mobile.

I could wear the little black dress with gold edges.
To think, they live in houses with concierges.
Shush, on the mobile.

Try to wear your pinstripe suit, as for our first kiss,
and look with love rather than taking the piss.
Finished the mobile...

...I hear he replaced you with jail bait—yes, I know.
So do yachts matter more…should I stay or go?
I'll ring the mobile.

Strange Fruit

The scream was short but it was the signal for the crowd to break up, some at least looking shamefaced. Not always, the ones you expected, Silas would say years later on the rare occasions he let the booze win. His granddaughters' angry why let him cry the past clean.

Don’t Mess With Grandma

'I was born here and I die here,’ Evelyn said calmly.
            'Listen to grandma here, you'd think she was paying the bills,' the bailiff said.
            'I am not your Grandmother and if you touch me, they touch you.’ 
            Looking out of the window, Karl saw the street crowded and ready.

Hot and Cold Holiday

Outside each tree in the garden was doing a disdainful tango as the rain sighed against the rattling window. It was a jumper day.
           ‘My kind of summer,' Rob said, as his wife banged the breakfast things away.'
           Only because you are too tight to go abroad,' Mandy shouted back.

Getting Chosen

 

 

'Yor stuck with yor kin but you choose yor friends,' she said in a take-me-as-you-find-me voice. It wasn’t an invite. Maggie, standing in her thrown together boot-sale clothes,  sidled a look at me. Sighing, she brushed her grey scraggy hair back and said, ' But I reckon you'll do.'

A Secret Affair

 

'You like. Want buy. Big on girls who like boy.'    
           Phew, from the cover Harold saw that was true but he had promised his wife no more secrets. Which apart from his special stash he kept to. So could he risk his marriage for the 1946 Archie Comics makeover edition?

Cold Turkey

'I need a hook-up now,' Jo screamed. 
           His mother just sat, holding her gun. Tears long gone, now it was a battle of wills. 
           She had lured him to the old house where nothing but the buzzards would be disturbed. 
            ‘You leave here either clean, or dead. It's your choice.’

Run Rabbit Run…

‘Please it's only a rabbit,’ Dali said, resigned to her irrational reaction.
           ‘Oh no, no.’
           He saw Lucy’s body go rigid, her neck reddening, and eyes flickering in fear.
           What the hell could a rabbit do, he thought.
Her first rapes were always to the sounds of Run Rabbit Run.

Clashing Obsessions

Where have you been all day, sniffin around skirts?
      ‘No, I am trying to find an elegant way of line indenting in HTML .’
      ‘That’s not what a healthy boy should be doin.’
      ‘It is what I do.’
      Les loved his son, or at least the son he thought he deserved.

The Pedant's burden

At times of stress, you know
before you want to kill,
but after you slam doors
repeat to yourself this
evocation: They may
vacillate but you
insist on time worn rules.
As you calm, look again
to the stupid squiggles
innocently peering
out- a clear sense rotted.
Now your head thumps again,
someone has to say no!

Sadly, you wail in vain
unheard and ignored as
common gutter grammar
kills our Bard's mother tongue.

Waiting too long

Always alone
by the thrown tree—
his moan now woe.

Blue skies his low.
Best was snow or
rain—though love missed.

On death, she kissed.



He waited as he always waited—outside by the fallen tree.

.....The worse days were sunny and blue when the children danced to school. But on

rainy days when the children trudged by he could always imagine her wanting to

come.

.....Not even her death stopped him waiting.

When is mine yours?

The wedding dress was a satin back taffeta
a-line gown with halter-top but the mirror was screaming not good with those shoulders. In any case, the side-draped
waistline with its delicate crystal beading was too tight but what did you expect.
.....Shame his girl friend insisted he wore a morning-suit.

How you treat the least amongst you, is how you shall be judged

It was seeing his neighbour die needlessly
that started his plea, 'Call me crazy but
when was it right to let us suffer in the midst
of plenty?'
.....They did and beat him out of town. But
some listened, and then more, so he died
leaving others able to live.

Revenge is never cold

‘It’s a mystery…’
.....Harry let the minister’s voice
drift, as he looked round struggling the hate
out of his eyes.
.....It wern’t a mystery why she laid there.
The town had killed her with pointing fingers
and sly looks. Reaching inside his jacket, he
pulled and took everybody’s last breath.

When you can’t say no

‘Stop that. I am sorry he can be a right little

monster sometimes,’ Helen said, in an

apologetic tone. Why had she agreed to look

after him, she thought trying to grab

Tommy’s arm.

.....‘Now sit down, the nice lady is talking.’

.....‘Sorry.’ The job interview was not going well

Going beyond

The sea was his last and first memory.

.....Once the smell of a father fresh from the

boats that held and danced him into the

sea, laughing at the waves and fretting

womenfolk.

.....Now as the glass bottom light darkens,

he stops struggling as the voices of his past call.

When your love fades

The water tippled into the bath; soon the

comfort of warm water would distract her.

.....Listening, he turned the laptop on, found

tissues and started surfing for the forbidden

—steaks cooking, bacon sizzling in easy

diners. Wiping his drooling mouth, he knew

that her nut cutlets were no longer enough.

Sex in England

The bed knocking woke him up.Ted glanced at the clock. 'Bloody  Hell,' and went to bang the wall.
.                          *** 
'Ooh no, I'll not be able to show my face,' she said. 'Wrap a pillow over you.'
..........................***
'No use. They aren't stirring. You and your effing spice it up with bondage.'

On the weekend of the new football season.

'Feel my forehead and chest', Steve said

feebly.

.....You are just trying to get out of Anna's

fiftieth, Nigela said.

.....Reaching over she was shocked to feel

how hot they were.

.....'I supposed I could go with Rosemary.'

.....Steve, moving the hot-water bottle away before she saw it, nodded weakly.

Careful what you wish for

They staggered on through the moonlight, a

grey line stretching from hill to hill—silent

except for the groans of the wounded and

the flutter of ragged flags. The swaggered

farewells of spring long replaced with anger.

.....At his execution, the King still shouted,

‘Victory or Death.’

....The mob agreed.

The peacemaker’s creed

You are a yellow-belly but you sing.
You are a yellow-belly but want love.
You are a yellow-belly and say now.

You stand and say why wait; let us stop now!
Others only kill but you want to sing.
They come to look on you with hate, not love

The stabs start in the night but you give love.
Angry voices squash your pleas for peace now.
They crush your flesh but our spirit will sing

I’m a yellow-belly and sing love now