The exciting, nail-biting finale
Oh, playing time has finally arrived
Family competition of Scrabble
Ah, over dictionaries we have strived
It often finishes in a squabble
Someone’s vocabulary has nose-dived
Tommy's poor lip quivering and trembles
All because Robbie chanted, mocked and jived
The whole table begins to dissemble
An argument from where the word derived
Oh dear, watching all good spirit crumble
Hopefully, harmony can be revived
Next time, one of these ideas I hatch

lost to a dream merchant
the counter a bed
the lights wink in the chrome sink
and the clever skill wrists
are slunk to the pocket depths

an ear exposed beyond the thick
shine of dyed black hair
anonymous grifter colour
like a great wing
laying shinning down the
length of wool
the tiny back

Snow and rain caress
the plate glass
and there is joy in the voice
of the bell
that cries arrivals
and departures

an aviary angel sleeps
in weary wings
and working soul

EMPTY SPACES

I stand in an empty place
reaching far and wide
no horizons to hold onto,
and I am lost in vertigo.

useless are recollections
short flashes of life done
replayed in Death’s refraction.
meaningless are words
for they only say, never truly tell.
fearful is the silence I hear
hollow echoes of my prayers
into infinite spaces. *

*BLAISE PASCAL: “Le silence éternel de ces espaces infinis m’effraie” [The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.” ]

The room is dank and stale,
bedsheets and underwear shudder
in the closet bottom.

There, mucus stains
and bits of broken chicken bones
lie strewn as the slain
after Troy was sacked.

Windows are dark and dirty,
haunting curtains fly
as the lonesome winds sigh.

Pretentious music faintly sings:
bit-sized string quartets
chime a jolly melody
to an imaginary audience.

The mind grows faint from
pleasure's distress,
and foreboding what
may never come.