Friday 26 August 2011

Another story?

Ahead of me a young man, good looking, emerges
slipping silently from behind a tall back gate.
Crosses the road and just as silently disappears behind another
 ... ah, but if he had, he surely would have been more furtive, more dishevelled?

Thursday 25 August 2011

Before I get up

The uneven hiss and faint murmur,
occasional single spot plink,
informs me I will need boots today.

Wednesday 24 August 2011

Mistakes happen

Misread the clock.
Up and dressed before I realised it was four not five.
This time a lack of careful observation
Oh well.

Tuesday 23 August 2011

Decision time

A need, next week, to write, not type, sets me to wondering what’s best.

I like the fine convenience of propelling pencils
but words too quickly smudge to illegible.
Asked my daughter, who recommends fine-liner felt tips,
remember that roller balls can be so smooth,
and that biros are best not the cheapest 
and realise I need to go to Staples.

Monday 22 August 2011

Not cricket


Overripe plums, mostly red, some grey with mould,
scatter-patterned across the lawn
less than successfully bowled from the branches above.

Sunday 21 August 2011

Geese again


Even more briefly, no more than a glimpse,
dissension resolved, two dozen or more,
in chevron, pass close by my window.

Saturday 20 August 2011

Briefly

The geese down by the unseen river,
greet the golden dawn
with what sounds like group dissension.

Friday 19 August 2011

Misunderstood

Those sparrows, mentioned on the sixteenth,
I realise now, were not excited by the pond,
just on their lunch-hour.

Thursday 18 August 2011

Just now - 05.39

Briefly, for a moment, from the colour
the sky old fashioned blotting paper
and the clouds blue-black Quink ink

Wednesday 17 August 2011

Waking thoughts, having read in one sitting yesterday.

Picked up from ‘Help the Aged’
a book the blurb for which implies it’s teenage sex.
But it turns out to be multi-levelled;
much more on family and the damage they unwittingly do
and the cloying, clutching nature of a friendship based dishonestly on guilt.

Tuesday 16 August 2011

Watched while eating lunch

A dozen or more delinquent adolescent sparrows
dart dizzily from fence to trellis to hedge,
seemingly made giddy by the recent weed-cleared pond.

Monday 15 August 2011

On getting up at 5 a.m.

First impression through square window,
custard sky beyond the night-dark trees,
so that’s what the raucous solitary seagull
was on about just now.

Sunday 14 August 2011

Sod's law and stains

Is it that we never spill red wine on the crimson tablecloths,
or just that it doesn't show, as it does upon the creamy-beige?

Saturday 13 August 2011

Flo's toes

Three and a half, she notices a damaged toenail.
Sits down, puts foot in mouth and repairs it with her teeth.
Not knowing that one day such action won't be possible.

Friday 12 August 2011

drugged

Observation lacking totally today
I am reading the sixth in the Lymond series
maybe for the sixth time
but I cannot put it down.

Thursday 11 August 2011

On my way to buy a morning paper #4

Pink neon reflected on the fish and chip shop tiles,
and again across the puddled tarmac of the car park,
a fractured, trailing Isadora Duncan chiffon scarf.

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Although not cold enough

My slightly blurred reflection in the darkness of the double glazing,
the blackness of the frantic trees against the pewter sky,
gloomily presage November.

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Deceived, deceiving

Winter ice blue sky confirmed by early morning freshness –
and yet it IS still August

Sunday 7 August 2011

7th: New-made elder sister
And Flo becomes a middle child:
vivid, argumentative,
logic unsurpassable
and forehead clear.

6th:  Nine days old
Stupidly surprising,
skinniness of limbs,
bleared blue-grey wisdom.
mouth’s silent enunciation.

5th.: Nurture or nature
Connie so competent:
five years of parenting,
or the mix of her genes?

4th:  Journey south
Clouds high, light and almost blue,
ever-present promise that the sun’s about to shine:
nevertheless there’s non-stop rain
which lasts for hours and hours.

Thursday 4 August 2011

Momentary visual dislocation

Slightly late arising
and a shock to see November fog
at a fourth of August dawn.

Wednesday 3 August 2011

superfluous

Do we really need a twice-daily rag and bone man,
abbreviated shouting incoherent
and on foot?

Tuesday 2 August 2011

Lunch with ex-colleagues

1.
Sociability, despite enjoyment, can be exhausting,
unlike the communing of loved and like-minded.
2.
Purporting to tell a tale against herself
she draws attention to her skinny arse.

Monday 1 August 2011

Changes of direction and time

Rain spattering the kitchen window
tells me the wind has changed
from north to south.
I doubt the friend I will meet today
(not seen for twenty-five years)
has changed so drastically