The politician

Going forward we’d be backward if

we didn’t have a goal to look forward to.

Let me make this crystal clear. Crystal clear.

We’ll take our whole raft of measures on board,

unpack it and run with it. Everything is on

the table and I’m not ruling anything in or out.

I’ve said this before.

Let’s be consistent about this

going forward.

Down through the years I’ll hit the ground

running an uphill battle on the slippery slope

on the downward spiral.

We’ve been inundated and left

hung out to dry

in the 24 hour spin cycle.

But it’s crystal clear.

Going forward we’ll be,

er, going forward.

It’s a cliché poem. I was tired of thinking about “the world’s your oyster” so I changed the point-of-view.

pearl

i am a pearl

and the oyster

is my universe.

It’s been a week of X-rays, ultrasounds and MRIs… One good thing to come out of it has been this poem. I’m not sure that it’s finished, but I think the idea is a good start.

radiology

holding our future in nervous hands

we come with x-rays – ikons

in large envelopes with corporate logos

queue for the Delphic Oracle

who divines the auspices

like chook entrails.

this arcane analysis

reading the stars within…

Grrr…

Months later when a nervous dog tells me

to back off   –             a denouement.

That boy had been trying to tell me the same thing

when I’d asked him to join the lesson.

Those kids were laughing at him

and this was my first warning

if he were cornered

he would become violent.

Rejected by both natural parents

a string of foster parents and GOM carers

his amygdala knew about self-preservation.

His body was a 12 year old boy

his brain was a cornered animal, back to the wall.

Niceties stripped down it’s

You or Them.

His breathing takes over, sucking,

blowing through teeth and nostrils.

The rage begins.

The animal returns.

(N.B. GOM = Guardianship Of the Minister, i.e. ‘ward of the state’.)

Yesterday’s prompt was to write a poem from a songlist.

My musical tastes are a bit unusual. Most of the music I listen to at the moment is on dig.ccmixter.org. My current favourite is the vocalist ciggi burns. The randomly-generated playlist came up with

One for Me, The Only Love I Ever Needed, Still Water, How Lucky I Am,

The Drunken Sailor’s Plea To The Hooker and Small Back Room.

Here’s the poem I came up with:

The drunken sailor’s plea to the hooker.

How lucky I am!

The only love I ever needed was             to be

lost                                                             at sea,

found                                                 in still water.

you please me for a minute

in a small back room

yet that deep water

between                                                 lands

will sustain me

for a lifetime.

The one for me

is the sea…