They Said It Was Love

They said it was love,
They knew nothing,
Their home was slowly rotting,
The kitchen smelt of sweetcorn
And their bedroom had broken in two.

Under the floorboards
The shadows saw it coming,
Smiles only crept
When worries were ignored
And troubles took a smoke break.

In dreams it seemed like fiction
All descriptions and soliloquies,
Just one with words to speak,
The other turning off the lights
And falling into the darkness.

They said it was love,
They knew nothing,
They were a tapestry of misery
Sown together with threads of hope,
Frayed loose and spastic tongued.

The end was punctuation free,
More a fizzle than a bang
As confusion saw the sunset,
Painted burnt and wildly sore,
Nothing suggesting tomorrows.

Poetry.net

On the Edge of a Derelict Town

Just my presence it seemed
Made you sit back and slump,
New days introduced
With a groan and a sigh,

Communication lay dead
Like a rat in an old wooden shed,
No words left to probe
Just eyes slowly dying

And the love we once had
Just an overgrown plot
Where the runner beans grew
And died unattended.

To think we were once
The two unworn coats
Hanging all happy
In a cloakroom of chance,

In a dusty pub swaying,
Hit by the sunlight,
A bright perfect moment
We could summon in seconds.

It could have been forever
Or at least beyond a life,
But on the edge of a derelict town
The signs are painted over,

The roads that guided strangers
Are split by furious weeds
And daylight is a mask
That drops in times of woe.

Too soon came the dark
And the sounds of walls falling,
The world it had left us,
We were nothing but cloth,

Ripped ragged remnants
From the sounds of a town
That once buzzed like a bee hive
But now whispered conclusions.

It’s the pain that we pay for
As scars replace smiles
And the stench of dead rats
Brings the hum of lonely flies,

We could have been forever
Or at least as long as that seems,
Now we’re nothing but wasteland,
A fear inside a dream.

Poetry.net

Until the Ravens Descend

I waited and waited
And waited,
I waited so long I forgot
Why I was waiting

And then you appeared.
I wanted to act disgusted,
Angry, upset and let down,
But all I could do was smile

And that’s how it rolls,
This is how it will be,
Until this hill we’ve been lost on
Sees one of us drop one way

And the other the other,
Till both of us fade
Under bad skies
All brooding,

A calm dying passion,
A thick misted landscape
Hiding huge disappointments
Until the ravens descend.

Poetry.net

A Box of Soft Sheep’s Wool

My hands were stuck deep
In a box of soft sheep’s wool,

As I stood in the mill
Soaking its history
And dreaming
Of a Kendall Mint Cake
Conclusion
To my day out
Studying yesteryear.

I hoped it would be like that
Forever,

Not a worry
In the world,
A softness surrounding
Everything I touched,
A calmness
Slowly reigning supreme.

When we were children
We were told times were golden,
So we spat out and wrestled
All logic to the ground,

It was said our fresh minds
Could accomplish any dream,
The world was ours for the taking,
If we thought it all made sense,

We were benchmarked for big things,
(Well, some of us were),
We were let out of cages
And prayed for,

We were children of ego,
It mattered not if we were evil,
We were seagulls in flight,
We were capable of anything.

Look at us now,
Nothing has changed,
We kiss on the sky like it could fall any second,
We reckon this means we are still young.

Poetry.net

The Whispering Gargoyles

I want nothing more
Than to right my wrongs,
Kiss on a miracle
And fall in love with the future.

I want to conduct sun dials,
Race pigeons at dusk,
Write poetry that changes your mind
And improvises into applause.

I want nothing more
Than simple things,
A sun that sings out new thoughts,
The crest of a wave rising,

But I can’t even rise sometimes,
Paranoia kisses my neck,
Daydreams cackle
And the past starts to multiply stories.

I want nothing more
Than the ceasing of thought
For a minute or two,
Some kind of fog.

I can’t even fathom the truth,
My walk is the stumble of clowns
And the whispering gargoyles were right,
This building is starting to crumble.

Poetry.net

Vampire Clouds

As you sleep
And the dreams
You gently collect
Turn sour in seconds
They come,

Like a string
Pulled at the base
Of your
Favourite jumper,
Things unravel,

Flights
Through the sky
Drop into buildings,
Flames wake you,
Whispers settle.

The teeth
Of ‘something’s not right’
Plant rashes
On your skin,
You are gone now,

You are taken
By indecision,
Sucked dry of all hope,
All it took
Where a few bad decisions

And now
Everything is dark,
Even the love
You handed to strangers
Is forgotten,

You are twisted
Like gutters in storms,
Chosen
For words of advice,
Broken by myths.

Poetry.net

The Eucalyptus Tree

Underneath the eucalyptus tree
The smoothest skin I ever felt,
The truest words I ever spoke
As the wine replaced rain
And your kiss brought the dawn.

I dreamt we wouldn’t fade
But fate got in the way,
A pile of raked up leaves
Instead of real decisions,
Walls of ill thought out excuses,
Furniture wet with tears.

Underneath the eucalyptus tree
I had the chance to steal the sun
But all I took were worries,
You had the chance to change my mind
But all you changed was the weather.

A Black Night Collapse

Up a tree as the storm hit,
Floods of people scuttled home,
Worried looks were everywhere,
A hundred gods groaned,

Rain dropped down in sheets,
Buildings creaked and sighed,
Litter grappled the evening
In miniature whirlwinds,

There were widows screaming questions,
Dogs howling like coyotes
And children wailing
Like banshees confused,

Siege mentalities gripped
And the streets become rivers
As I saw from up high
A black night collapse,

Dreams visiting in waves,
Beauty snatched away in moments,
Regret a moving force,
Dark clouds tarring the sky,

A way to worry forever.

Poetry.net

Winter

Ice winds circle,
People hunch
From building
To building
And the winter
That’s been muttered of
For weeks
Drops with aggression
And covers
The city in cold.

This is when
I miss you most,
The glow in your eyes
Enough to light up a night sky,
The kiss of your lips
A sweet tender joy,
The moment I’m happiest
And yet here we exist
Split by the frost,
A confusion compounded.

Streets smell of burnt wood
And longing,
But the time for revelations
Is over,
I hold out my hands
And there’s nothing
But chills,
A dream hanging spent
Like a breath,
A loss cold as winter.

Poetry.net