Poetry

Tuol Sleng

Your screams are in the walls
Lightly, I run my fingers upon them
And feel the texture of your fear
The sharpness of your pain
- keening.


Your blood is in the cracks between the tiles
Though black, it smells of redness
And yes, small children’s blood
Is sweeter than
The blood of men and women.


Your invisible shadows are bright
They move across the floor
Like dancers swirling
To death's chaotic music


And beneath these layers
We can hear other sounds:
The chanting of numbers,
The recitation of poems,
The conjugation of verbs...


Before the darkness came.

If interested, see the 

Wikipedia page for Tuol Sleng

Poetry

1916

I left you in the bluebell time
Afore that summer's foliage
Carpeted those paths we walked
In shadow.
I clasped you by a gnarled beech tree
And felt your urgent heart
Against my chest -
And the lovely bluebells
Hung like mist
And life seemed like a story
Of hope and yes, of love...
But I left you in the bluebell time
For Cannock Chase
And khaki games of war
No bluebell kisses
And no words to say
Those awful things we saw.

Poetry

2020

We rang our bells like lepers
"Unclean! Unclean!"
Drifting along half empty streets
Faces hidden by surgical masks
Furtively glancing at those who passed
Going nowhere.
Going home.


We switched on television sets
"Stay Home! Save Lives!"
Wondering if we might die soon
Fears hidden by masks of ribaldry or
Desperately joining quizzes on "Zoom".
Saving Lives,
Staying Home.


We booked our vaccinations
"Hands! Face! Space!"
Believing we might at last be saved -
Rescued by boffins in white lab coats
Cleverly developing antidotes
Shaking test tubes,
Shaking hands.

Poetry

RAPA NUI

With such certainty
The stone adze struck
Unyielding tuff.
Sometimes the masons
Would wipe their brows
And survey the line
Drawn where ocean met sky.

Way beyond it,
Chinese potters made exquisite vessels,
Aztecs built Tenochtitlan,
Egyptians immortalised the Nile
And America sat unknown.
But here on the slopes
Of Ranu Raraku
They chipped away
Day by day
Making their moai
For the dead
And for the
Extolment of the living.
There was never a doubt
That's what life
Was all about.

28.10.09

Poetry

RAIN

All through that night
And into the following day
It rained.
We tried to shelter
In the lee of trees
By the crossroads
Where we used to play -
Fine at first
The droplets grew,
Plothering from oak leaves
Under that leaden sky
Till sodden the verges
And the old road
Be-puddled
Muttering rivulets
Flowed down Harrison's Hill
Gurgling to gutters
Replete with water
While wet as fish
We splashed home
In the endless rain,
The endless
Rain.

Quiztime

I realise that not everybody who visits this blog has a blog of their own. Some, like Coppa's Girl for example, are just readers of blogs which is fine and dandy. However, these visitors may not be aware that when creating a "new post" bloggers have the option to press on the "Insert special characters" button which is like a human face emoji. It leads to dozens of possible symbols we can insert into our text. But what do they  represent? For this quiz you have to suggest what each of the following ten symbols or special characters mean. 

1. 🎆 
2. 👵 
3. 🎦 
4. 🍣 (Clue: Japanese)
5. ♒ (Clue: astrological sign)
6. 👙
7. 🎪 
8. 🌀 
9. 📅 
10. ⛲

This time, because your friendly quizmaster is away, the answers are given at the end of the big empty space that follows.

BIG EMPTY SPACE

⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇

ANSWERS

1. fireworks

2, older woman
3. cinema
4. sushi
5. Aquarius
6. bikini
7. circus tent or big top
8. cyclone or hurricane
9. calendar
10. fountain

Poetry

Song for Lost Youth

Perhaps I should have cradled it
Like a dove
Kept it safe with tender love
But I squandered it -
Gushing-blundering-raging
Like a wild mountain stream
Desperate for an ocean
That was but a distant dream.
...I just never thought
That I could have loitered in the shallows
Reflecting the blueness of the sky
- Concealing silver fishes
- Quietly biding my time
- Stretching it out.
And so, and so it's gone now
- My ephemeral youth
- That precious once only gift
- That honeyed sweetness,
Leaving only the trembling resonance
Of distant echoes
From half-remembered hills.