Monday 25 March 2013


EARLY WALK.

Orange is turning purple green as the harbingers
of a February sun wipe slates to a shine.
I am enticed out and about to where the moor’s wind
has descended and become a street-corner bully
using its blade on my eyes; the rhombus doorway
now has blurry edges and my cheeks are wet. I walk.
Later, the grumpier of Brian’s waitresses asks,
Why don’t you ever have an egg with your breakfast?
Returning, I sway. Wrapped in duvet, I wait for sleep.

Tuesday 19 March 2013


FIRST ATONIC SEIZURE

vague
puzzled
reception area
brown carpet
turn round
glass table
whistle silently
pale face above
man in dark blue
stair well
climb into the ambulance
no recovery time

I thought you had had a heart attack
there was a big white patch on your forehead
they made you walk downstairs 
plate glass
pieces everywhere
how the hell you didn’t


Friday 15 March 2013


SIMPLE ADDITION

Count the numbers of people
worldwide who have

multiple sclerosis
cerebral palsy
muscular dystrophy
parkinson’s disease

The sum total comes to fewer
than have epilepsy. Check it out

Please tell me if WHO
don’t confirm my assertion.
You have my promise
I will not throw a fit


Thursday 14 March 2013


JONI

I wish I was back
where I never was,
swimming in the hot air
above your pavements,
blinking at your skyline,
dancing between the ecstasy
and grief of a single note from you.

I came to Toronto in ’95 but you had gone.


Tuesday 12 March 2013


ON SURVIVAL

If cornflake-tinted leaves were to descend in slo mo so slow
they might look as if stitched to the gauze-mist
infiltrating trees, could a singular wave continue
to break against the flow of a muscular river?

When six o’clock sunshine lays itself along the valley bottom 
the parish church clock clangs to proclaim it both
exemplifies the status quo and marks its evolution,
so stating one cannot exist without the other.


Sunday 10 March 2013


READ ABOUT A DIFFERENT
COMPLEX-PARTIAL SEIZURE
FOR EACH DAY OF THE WEEK:

Go to Friday, 18 Jan 2013.
there you’ll find Monday’s surprise.
That will do for a start...........


Saturday 9 March 2013


MISUNDERSTANDINGS,
SATURDAY NIGHT.

Hello gorgeous

Hello

I’ve been watching you

Oh yes?

I just blew a kiss back at you

Is that a fact?

All you did was stare right through me

Do you have a problem?

Only you

Where am I causing you pain?

In my backside

Charming. Do you say that to everybody?

No, just some. Actually, you do have a nice way
of blowing kisses. How about a few more?

Erm, this thing I do with my face muscles....
it's called an automatism

I call it cheeky, do it again

Honestly, I have no control over it

Oh yeah? Do you say that to everybody? 

No, really.  It’s my epilepsy

I’m beginning to get that pain again

Why?

You shouldn’t mock the afflicted

How much do you know about the epilepsies?

Don’t you mean the epileptics?

No. The epilepsies. There’s over forty kinds
of epilepsy, some say many more.

Epileptics thrash around and scare me. Disgusting

Now you’re the one who’s being a pain.
Shut up, and try listening instead of talking

I liked it better when you were being cheeky.
Lighten up. Blow me a kiss and get some drinks

Oh, go away. You stupid....

Friday 8 March 2013


SIMPLE WHEN YOU KNOW

Three plum trees blossoming in February,
petals falling after snowflakes. Sunshine filtering
from south blinks as the twigs flick in response
to goings and returnings.

I realise why the sky in my garden bewitches me.
Sun flashes among the plums at a frequency
triggering seizures. Simple.


Thursday 7 March 2013


CERTAINTIES

She is a certainty stomping around the only segment
of a football pitch not made mysterious by mist.
A rocking dog dangles below the yo-yo hand extended
until parallel with the playing surface and its molehills.
I finish pulling back the curtains, put a pair of Sony cans
over my ears, plug in the jack, tap the icon for Jazz FM,
soon broadcasting from my trouser pocket. The day
and date are not yet considerations, but both hands are
free to breakfast me, and dogs have never been my bag.