Wedding Present

Wedding Present

It was stunningly beautifully perfect

She placed it in the centre of the dining table

It was regal, full of tight budded yellow roses

My rose-bowl

My wedding present, from my beautiful wife

That was twenty-six years ago, now she has gone

The silver bowl, still beautiful, but tarnished

As our promises, sits on the back seat of my car

Tomorrow, with one small dint

Will make it’s final journey to the pawn brokers

30^th December 2011 : Caravan

The Valley Road

 The Valley Road

I’m pretty sure it was a valley road

Maybe, it was in Wales

I park in a dusty car park and ascend the wooden stairs

To a printers

There is nobody around, just the repetitive noise of the presses

It’s an old printers, the type cases are ready for picking

Old, upper and lower case fonts

I leave and close the office door against the noise

And descend back to the car park

To my left are a precinct of empty offices, one is open

A recruitment company that seems to know me by name

I’m asked to sign confidentiality agreement and contracts

They want me to find printing business for one of their clients

If I sign, I know I will be taking business away from the adjacent printer

I get in my car, reverse and drive out of the dusty car park

And continue my dream along the valley road

30^th December 2011 : Caravan

The Two Boxes

The Two Boxes

And, in a distant dream, I had a choice

Of opening one of the two locked boxes

The smaller was plain and much lighter than the larger box

Full of decoration and promise

And I covered myself from my nakedness

And her erotic eyes that gestured a decision from me

And, one of the boxes I opened and one I discarded

And later, much later, when dreams are elusive

And the journey of clothes a burden

I sit and reflect on opening the bigger box of greed and emptiness

That needed filling with worldly treasures that stale the air

And when the box was full, the smiling lady removed my hand

From my shyness and demanded the key to the big box

Full of gold and priceless ivory and rubies

And I wept tears of sorrow and stupidity at choosing life’s wrong box

Of happiness, by a man who’s eyes he covered before clothing himself

3oth December 2011 : Caravan

Life in a Day

Life in a Day

She brings a beautiful life

And a beautiful death, in one tragic fluttering

 Butterfly, flying day

Colours that span the quivering palpitation

That now rests, kiss and sow the next miracle

Settled in the setting sun’s warmth

She folds her wings that hide the eyes that cannot cry

That gracefully wither to tomorrows confetti lace rainbow

So silent, so beautiful, the lady Red Admiral

30^th December 2011 : Caravan

I Don't Want To Remember

I Don’t Want To Remember

No, I don’t want to remember

Rip-off medals, pride and poppies

The missing legs, the missing years, the missing millions

No, I don’t want to remember

The marching bands, eyes left, left only with

Little photographs of lost little ones lost in bloody mud

No, I don’t want to remember

Let the dying day fade

And the new sun warm hope of a glory forgotten

Remember them

30^th December 2011 : Caravan