The Day I Met the Wee Folk

In early summer, the wood is filled With leafy green and yellow flowers My feet disappear in the lush grass Sun shines dappled through the canopy And drops light piecemeal onto the forest floor I met them there in a fairy ring The wee folk, the fae The leader doffed his cap to me One…

Wishing

When you wish upon a starNothing will happenHow’s a flaming ball of gasBillions of light years awayGoing to give you what you wantBlow out the candlesToss a coin in a fountainIt’s all just as futileSuperstition and fantasy Wish insteadWhat can be achievedWhat future you can createYour hopes and dreamsAre in your handsYou are the architectOf…

The Alien in the Room

You never wanted to be a wife, a mother You rejected being a lady (just an idea invented by men) You never could work out What you wanted instead But who cares about that Goals are overrated anyway Be the one who isn’t normal Whatever normal may be Embrace your otherness Be the alien in…

News

I’m afraid the test was positive, says the doctor sombrely Oh, I respond, emotionless Feeling will come later, it’s always my way Delayed reactions to bad news What now? We discuss treatment Things to do, people to see all very civilized And that is all I go home And wonder when the dam will burst…

Measured out Days

I am the voice of well-wishersFamily, lovers, friendsI am the cheery smilesThe sentimental poemsThe bad age-related punsI am your happy birthdayYour merry ChristmasYour milestones and your new lifeYour just-married and your deepest sympathyYour friend, thinking of you, just because … I speak the days of your lifeMeasured out in occasion and eventI am a songI…

Never to Understand

I do not understand Nor am I understood I stand alone in a crowd Of alien faces spouting gibberish While my marble exterior is carved With glyphs no one can comprehend The city grows around me But they don’t know my message I have watched them grow But I don’t know their purpose We confront…

Undigested Dreams

The smiling shower curtain dolphin looked me up and down ‘You fat,’ it said ‘Yeah? Well, you flat,’ I retorted The shower curtain dolphin sniggered with its shower curtain dolphin friends They then proceeded to eat the shower curtain fish and swam off the shower curtain Leaving the brightly coloured coral Which promptly experienced a…

Entropy

Nothing lasts forever All that lives must die All that is must cease It all ends in entropy, so the scientists say Order to chaos, structure to wreckage This endless obliteration Is the breaking apart of all that exists At the end of all things There will be nothing at all No order, no chaos…

The Stone that the Builders Rejected

Scattered stones in an old quarry All the good stuff has been taken Hacked out, hauled away Leaving the scraps, the offcuts The good-for-nothing leftovers Not fit for purpose Yet the builders’ rejects Are lifted up and dusted off Shaped and polished and made ready To become cornerstones of new creations A new builder sees…

Compass

Ever used a compass Finding your way by the trembling point of a tiny needle That you can barely see Or you could be lost Wandering aimlessly in the wilderness No food, no water, no hope Life doesn’t come with a map Leaving you in the desert without guidance (Why isn’t there a map?) You…