HOME OFFICE

 The rolodex of days flips inexorably forward. The Newton's Cradle of time smoothly taps through the hours. It's years since I sat in an office. I expect both rolodex and Cradle have since been replaced by apps. I pretend I'm working from home and sit up in bed on my coffee break.

THE BOX DEFLATOR

I flatten all my cardboard boxes

I'm the box deflator

I place them in a larger box

I'll flatten that one later

BACK TO BACKPACK

A back pack stacked

Against a shack

Lacks a knack for slack

But a back packed stacked

Against the back

Is harder to unpack

A back pack stacked

Into a crack

Stacked with almanacs

Helps the wack insomniacs

Keep their sacks on track.

BRANCHING OUT - A WARNING

All tree shadows

must never be climbed

if the sun goes in

you'll be stuck in a bind

waiting all day 

for the sun to shine

out on a limb

lumbered in time

FROZEN

I can't find words for how bitter it feels

Confined to silent thought

Discreet monologues of fog

Performed as far as the eye can't see

To audiences of one

A duvet of ground-level clouds

Swallows my legs

Tests our perception

I am standing on the shoulders of defiance

STARTLING

Floating breath

Floating word

Right above my head

STARTLING was the cold

That is what I said

The birds heard

STARTING with L they pecked at it

STARING at me they ate T

STRING as the A went to a Blue Tit

STING, R it did to me

SING they did

SIN they had

IN I went

I was alone

EARS TO HAT

There's nowt wrong

with a woolly hat

my ears are long 

they cover that

A baseball cap

makes me look silly

I'm not that chap

my ears get chilly

A nice flat cap 

at 53

makes big ears sap

my youthful glee

So then my ears

still growing long

like me appear

to be headstrong

FAKE NEWS

 In the dark I look to where the garden should be. I'm not 100% sure it's there. All I've heard recently is people yelling 'Fake News' at me and the world? I can't be sure anymore. Someone's chipped away at my confidence.

I switch on the light. Truth prevails. It was always there.

NO SEX PLEASE WE'RE CHICKENS

Consider eggs

Noble things

Powder kegs

Chick offsprings

Not the bits

We eat for brekkie

No wee chicks

Let's get techie

No chick inside

Just yellow centre

Be advised

The white's placenta

Crack an egg

Enjoy the show

Cos 1 chick begged

And 1 said no.

ROLLING

 Rolled my  first fag way back when

And gave it to my pap

Rolled some more for him again

And filled his old flat cap.

I watched him light my crafted stick

Blow smoke into the air

All his fags I made real quick

To disappear with care.

(The memory distant of a 1 time assistant)