Haiku #28

Though Music may ebb
At the low-tides of our lives
It floods the Mind's eye.

Haiku #27

When the water flows
Carving gorges into rock
Think of every drop.

Haiku #26

Multiple stories
Silently learning their lines
Car park paragraphs.

Haiku #25

Sew a circled Sun
Darn twelve Moons that wax and wane
Stitch your tapestry.

Hidden Treasure

The bags under my eyes
Are packed for a journey
I've already taken.

They appear still to shine
But the artist has played
With a watery hue.

Grey spots the horizon
Across Autumnal downs
Of changing scenery.

My old thoughts hibernate
In the forgotten caves
Off their well-trodden path.

Many versions of me
Sit masked inside their lair.
Highwaymen of fortune.

I stand and deliver,
Give up some hidden hoard
And count the coins of fate.

What use this veiled trove
If on some winters eve
It cannot shine again?

Haiku #24

Frost finds feint canvass
Brush works amid cars and grass
Galleries of white.

Ripping Yarns - 10am 2018

In one hours time,
One hundred years ago,
The guns stumbled silent.
Time scratched its head at my question.

This would take some thought.

Rivers flow but one direction,
Branches grow but from the tree.
So why stop here and now for me?

I see my grandparents,
Long passed from my view,
Play in wild excitement
As children always do.

I see my great-grandfather,
Dead before I gasped my first,
Inhale victories of grateful breath
Through shell-corrupted lungs.

I see my great-grandmother,
Grateful for what had returned,
Weep privately with his wounds
And softly gasp for what he'd left behind.

I see my great great uncle.
The greatest of them all.
Laying buried and silent.
He echoes then. He echoes now.

Time scratched its head,
This would take some thought.
Who'd dammed its river
And changed its course?

Who pruned the branches
Back to the tree?
Who shrunk a century
Just for me?

Time scratched its head
This would take some thought.
The dead, the living,
The lives they fought.

Smoke and fireworks,
Smoke and battles,
Mixed up Time
But still death-rattles.

I see the whole century
Spread out for me,
Ripping yarns from coat-tails,
Which I should not see.

Time scratched its head
This would take some thought.

Time finally answered my question in no time at all.
I nodded.
I understood.
He hadn't stopped for only me
He'd stopped a nation for Memory.

Haiku #23

The dawn waits off-stage
Made-up it clings to the wings
Word-perfect wake-ups.

Remember! Remember!

Remember! Remember!
The sixth of November,
One day after the fun.

Spent fireworks display
In dark alleyways,
Shells of themselves to no one.

Sparkles lay sparkled
And bangers have banged,
Catherine's Wheel looks like it's beaten and hanged.

Candles from Romans,
What've they given us?
A short burst of flame,
Centurion dust.

Rockets and bottles
Once intimate friends,
Still live in the same street
But opposite ends.

Cold cooked potatoes
Stand deep in white ash,
Replanted in earth,
Unpicked for this bash.

The echoes have faded
There's no one to shout,
Whilst smouldering embers
Just pucker and pout.

The darkness returns
To the night as it will,
And even stray bangers
Lack yesterday's thrill.

Smoke lingers in noses
Not wanting to leave,
The very last mourner
Alone and bereaved.

Remember! Remember!
The sixth of November.
One day after the fun.

Haiku #22

Leaves whisked by the wind
Bequeathed to roots from above
The gifts are reborn

Reading In Bed And Other Travels

Stuck in my bed for the odd month or three,
With nothing but books to accompany me.

I've travelled in time, heard Abraham Lincoln,
Flown to the future, saw Earth's mass-extinction.

I've watched as Charles Dickens grew tales of two cities,
Then saw them revolting amid love and pity.

I've followed old Ahab as he chased the whale,
And laboured with thoughts from Wilde's Reading gaol.

Considered the rope from which Crippen once dangled,
And Kennedy's death from all possible angles.

I've danced with the wolves and the Sioux on the prairie,
And back with Abe Lincoln and his wife 'dear Mary'.

It seems that no matter where I go in my head,
I return, though refreshed, still stuck in my bed.

Today

Today never leaves you,
It's always today,
With the promise of tomorrow,
Stories of yesterday.
But.
We're.
Stuck.
With it.
Like a party-goer cornering you in the kitchen.
You can't shake off today.

Haiku #21

The English put off
Speaking anothers language.
Procrastinationals

Haiku #20

Winter duvet days
Frost chips fix to window panes
They're frying tonight

Haiku #19

Monocled headlights
Swagger through dawn's early rise
Half-blind cars or bikes?

Haiku #18

The Robin dances
With a half-coconut shell
Strictly judged by me.

Haiku #17

Words left unspoken
Coinage of deeds left undone
Spend wisely life's cache.

Haiku #16

Time can't find a home
When the Past has kicked it out
And Now moves it on.

Haiku #15

I am half awake
As the Day ponders the same
It's Night's turn to sleep.

Haiku #14

Ants hear the frost grow
And chase the Autumn retreat.
An army then rests.

Haiku #13

Dead newspapers dance
And old print proclaims a scoop
Winds hot off the press.

Haiku #12

Frost on fingers nip,
Tiptoes over sleeping cars.
Winter lines reborn.

Haiku #11

Lazy light from trains
Works just as hard as sunlight,
Without the commute.

Haiku #10

Whispers in hushed tones.
Complimenting the weather.
It hears. Giggles. Shines.

Haiku #9

Rain drifts through the sky.
Duvet clouds woke from their sleep.
Pillow-talk whispers.

Haiku #8

Morning has broken
It was dropped during a fight
Night blames day blames night

Haiku #7

Raindrops fall as ice
Warm faces catch winter spots
Frosty acne melts.

Haiku #6

Who remembers us?
When names etched fresh fade
Who remembers them?

Haiku #5

Sun shines through the blinds
Settling in lines on my face
Both so far from home.

Haiku #4

The day disappears
As Autumn and Winter fight
For evening sunlight.

Haiku #3

Odds and sods and ends
Of family memories
Lives hidden in trees.

Haiku #2

The Sun is leaking
Soaking me in Autumn's rays
Browning leaves at last.

Haiku #1

Late Autumnal stroll
Through new aisles of falling leaves
Go these oldyweds.

CROSSED WORDS

A silly argument

Over a cross word

Leaves 2 down.

Stephen Kerr September 15 2018

STICKLEBACK

I remember all the things
I did so long ago.
Ask me where I keep my keys
I'll tell you where to go.

Look up at the old jam jar
My nan had on her shelf.
Once filled with fresh stickleback
I caught all by myself.

The fish are gone
The keys remain.
My mind's ajar
Again & again.


Stephen Kerr September 26 2018

The NRA Guide To Education

Arm the teachers and mine the gym,

Ain’t no bad hombres getting in.

We’ve issued arms to history grads,

The PTA has tooled-up dads.

Soccer moms, grenades aplenty,

You’ve got ten Glocks? We’ve got twenty!!

Principals with Gatling guns,

They’re saving daughters, saving sons.

The science lab has cooked up napalm,

Just so that we all can stay calm.

Our prom queen hunts with an Uzi,

Ask her out though she’s real choosy.

Bazooka Joe’s our janitor,

Though really he’s an amateur

Compared to Superintendent Frank,

Who comes to school in his own tank.

So welcome all but be aware,

We’re teaching lessons, honest and fair.

If you’re lost in the dark, looking to fight,

We’ll show you the way, with our nuclear light.

Stephen Kerr – 2018