Ragged Out Rider

He sat upon the start-line with his neck all wet with fear.

The pride he’d gain from this one jump would last him all the year.

He glanced at all the gathered crowd who came to watch him ride.

If he failed to do this one great thing, he’d lose more than his hide.

.

He revved the engine once or twice, the sound it made was right.

His helmet was securely on his head and his jacket zipped up tight.

He stared right down the run they’d made and focused on his prize.

The things they’d found for him to jump were not all unisized.

.

When the starter yelled and blew the horn, he tore off down the line.

He made the jump and landed well and all in all went fine.

But when he heard his father shout, he knew he was in deep,

For the field it was his father’s and the things he jumped were sheep.

.

The Cruise

Peter, for years, saved to go on a cruise.

He decided on old Saint-Tropez.

He got on the boat, prayed, ‘Keep it afloat.

Let the whole trip be happy and gay.’

.

The boat, as it happened, was not all that good.

It sunk on the very first night.

Our Peter did cry, ‘Please, don’t let me die.

Redeem me from this awful plight.’

.

He managed to swim to an unknown dry land,

deprived of all that he’d brought.

Though he didn’t know then, a party of ten,

Would soon serve him a large cooking pot.

Nothing My Thumbs Press

  • In Response to ‘Text’ by Carol Ann Duffy

.

Nothing my thumbs press,

will ever be heard.

At three in the morning,

My vision being blurred.

My tongue tastes of cotton,

And language is slurred.

My message goes out,

But no-one is stirred.

.

The verse that I sent out,

I tried to reword.

To speak out, in person,

I would have preferred.

I look at the message,

And think a cross word,

Throw it back in my pocket,

And go home, perturbed.

.

I wake in the morning,

My mouth is like curd.

My eardrums are banging,

Not one thing be heard.

I remember that last night,

My mind then disturbed.

Texting while puddled,

Should really be curbed.

.

Death Poem

I
It was hot, that intense summer’s daytime,
The weather, close without reason or rhyme.
Skin slips off; the bodies before me thaw.
Escaping, where once it held; now withdraw.
Spiritual. Can murder be thus? Discuss.
Nature loves to take back what it gave us.
This feeling, it soaks me like delight.

II
I watch them as a passion enthrals me.
The body, degrading naturally.
It was wild, in the heat of the moment.
Not mutual. A true act of bestowment.
A romance, yet emotionless; endless.
The taste, too, I do find delicious.
I was alone and merely being playful.

Daddy, Daddy (Corrected)

(In response to The Night Watch by Niall Campbell)

.

Daddy, daddy, hear my cry.

The moon came out. I try and try,

To sleep but bracken on the glass,

Scratches at my soul and lasts,

Till you can come and ease the pain,

And send me back to sleep again.

Daddy, daddy, hear me wail,

Take hold of me from o’er the rail.

And hum that tune I love to hear,

To take away my lonesome tear.