inheritance

Inheritance

Got a letter today, my half sister’s
Meager possessions have been divided,
I’m now the owner of a step-ladder,
Two illustrated books and an atlas, but
I have to pick them up within a fortnight
As her flat is being cleaned and re-let.

No, I never met my sister, father had
Many children, his adultery dismayed
Mother. A step ladder, two illustrated
Books and an atlas, nothing much to
Construct a lasting memory of; I only
Hope her life wasn’t lived in vain.

a sonnet to a schooner

Sonnet to a Schooner

The broken rigged schooner awaits the auctioneer’s
gavel to fall to the highest bidder, who will dismantle
her plank by plank, as material to build holiday homes
for the rich: “The floor you walk on was once part of
a ship’s deck,” a home owner will proudly point out.
Doesn’t he know she was built by hand and thus has
a soul? Seafarers’ blood has dripped on her deck and
men have fatally fallen out of her rigs; funeral at sea
she has seen. If I tonight, when the wind comes from
shore, take a chance, set sail for the open seas, ghosts
of sailors past, will come, man the rigs and set sail for
an ocean beyond the known, one unseen by any man
alive; only I’m not yet prepared to go there, so I’ll
leave it for now, but will forever remember her well

a seafaring tale

A Seafarer’s Tale

I have seen the mountains when they
were raging seas, taller than Everest,
yet with a ballet dancer’s grace, leap
across the stage of nature to the music
of Thor’s thunder and howling winds

Steady sea-legs now, hold on to an iron
railing, stay clear! Or the sea will bury
us under tons of water never to be seen
again. Yes, have seen peaks jive before
they turned into solid, silent rocks.

sonnet to seascape

Sonnet to Seascape.

I never saw how green the sea is off the coast
of Labrador, didn’t notice a blue whale blowing
a Geyser of warm water, and missed the halo of
haze the giant created. I didn’t see how azure
the Caribbean is, nor dolphins racing alongside
my ship; the golden sand of Cuba passed me
by, as did shadows of tiger sharks on sunlit sea.
The majesty of a raging Pacific Ocean didn’t
register, busy I was navigating to Tokyo bay,
thinking of Japan’s many delights. Sea ports
have paled into irrelevance “What was her
name?” Now that it is too late, only the essence
of what I failed to be thankful for, the constant
beauty of the seascape, remains.

Liquid Tanka

The Holly Liquid (Tanka)

I’m a diviner
And will find for Chad water,
But not oil riches,
A liquid that brings nothing,
But greed, wars, strife and hunger

Irrigate the land
And goats will graze upon green
Need is history;
Water brings children happiness
Clean hands and superior health

Epigram

The safe place, in wars, is the armed
Forces; in cities car bomb blasts, kill
Your aunt; from the air, rockets turn
Your house to dust and broken bricks

flags

Flags.

The money tree, at the bottom of the municipal park,
the one my father showed me that dripped coins, is
inside a bank cathedral now, the park too has been
privatized the corporation’s flag snaps, with clout in
the wind, people working there wear nametags and
are proud to belong to such a splendid organization,
that can tell small states how to run their affairs.

Flags are vital everyone must march under one, even
if it’s a rowing clubs banner; without one you’re alone.
Take the woman, who was married to a famous man,
he had left her for a younger one, she didn’t sink into
oblivion, but hoisted her own colors, told the world he
had a small dick and a piscine air hung about him; her
banner is green, for fury, and has a £ sign printed on.

senryu

Senryu

Drive on bio fuel
And you deprive someone
Of his bread

epigram

Epigram.

In Afghanistan we defend warlords
Right to grow as much poppies as
They like, making millions addicted,
Just to keep sober Taliban at bay.

Serryu, tanka and zen

Senryu

No moon tonight
Stars are dull without Luna
Wonder where she is?



Senryu

Full moon tonight
I walk on air of romance
Thinking of lost love



Tanka

In the glade tonight
Under the glare of moonlight
Women are burned
For making love in the hay
And enjoying it




Zen

Full moon
The ocean is high
So am I

As The Summer Ends.

We sat by the communal outdoor swimming pool,
thin legs splashing in its, dull, safe water, cooler
now than last week, a summer was ending and
pensiveness hung as gossamer on evergreen bushes.

A hawk flew overhead and accidentally dropped its
prey, a sparrow, that with broken wings spiraled into
the pool; the bird bleed, we had to move our legs out
of the pool as it quickly turned burgundy.

A young couple who had frolicked in the water got
out and liquid rubies dripped off their sleek bodies.
In the changing room we avoided looking at each
other to see what time had done to us,

Epigram.

When God decided to show us his face
he did so through the defiant Jew, Jesus.
Two thousand years later, and it appears
that God is a practical joker.


,,,,,,,,,

Epigram (entertainment)

A Spanish Toreador slaughter the bull
In public; a Portuguese toreador, kills
The beast out of sight; not wishing to
Hurt your tender feelings

the crime

The Crime

In a hidden cove where the sand is white in moonlight
and lovers go to get away from the throng, they found,
after winter storm, rolled in a red beach towel- half
buried in the sand- the skeleton of the three years girl
who disappeared from her hotel room when her parents
were out dining, a summer night, the year before.
The back of her skull was broken and the coroner said
she had been murdered by persons unknown.

The child was buried in a Portuguese cemetery, they
are always so beautiful, pictures and white marble,
many people came, her parents too; a swell of flowers,
there were tears and a local celebrity sang; good she
was found, “closure” the papers called it, a word oft
used these days. Mourners said it was like Princess
Diana’s funereal, smaller scale of course. Murder case
filed, the police could do little, till someone confessed.

to think the unthinkable

To Think the Unthinkable (Madelaine story)

The little girl, everyone loved, had turned bothersome
and tired, her mum and dad was going out dining with
friends, she cried refused to sleep; clung to her mother,
who, brushing her hair, irritated pushed her baby off.
The child fell backwards hit her head on a window
ledge and that was fatal. Dad wrapped his daughter’s
body in a large towel and drove to the a deserted beach,
and made a deep grave in the sand. Met their friends at
a restaurant, and during the evening the mum went to
check on her baby, came back, said child was missing.
The lie took on its own life; they just had to hold on it
too late to tell the truth now. Found out or not it doesn’t
really matter much as the secret of their deed will be
their cross to carry through a lifetime of regrets.

seen and not forgotten

Seen and Never Forgotten

Nine o’clock an autumnal evening I had been playing
monopoly at a friend’s house and lost, my friend,
who also was the banker, won. To save time going
home I jumped over fences, ran through other people’s
gardens when I saw it; through a French window,
a huge female body, white as snow, enormous breasts
with big carmine tits, and further down a shimmering
blond triangle. She stood near the fireplace warming
her delectable body after a bath, flames danced, hissed,
stretched and tried, in vain to embrace this Rubenesque
painting of enticing womanhood. I say that now, but
then I was awestruck, feared I might go blind; told my
brother, he feigned deep disinterest, but asked in which
house the Valkyrian lived.

senryu

Senryu

The day is just hot
Thirsty soil and cruel sun
Breeze hides in a cave


Zephyr blows on sea
Cools sun-glittering surface
Beach is in agony,


Galloping sea mares
Haste towards the shore
And bathers retreat


Sparrows fall off twigs
Leafless trees have no shadows
Underneath snakes wait


Frothing stallions
Thunderous gallop to shore
Ridden by surfers

Human behaviour

Human Behaviour

Cut a cockroach’s head off, I read with
amazement, and it can live for days, as
its brain is in its stomach. Great so it can
stumble about wondering why it can’t see
or feed. I dislike cockroaches too, but…?

I kill them if they walk over my food or
float in my coffee, but I do not chop their
heads off as this used to be an execution
reserved for Scottish Royals and the odd
engineer caught, in Iraq, by madmen. .

bar evening

Bar Evening

When the music,
in the bar stopped,
the cascade of voices
ceased too,
people could hear
themselves, their
own craven insincerity,
that wasn’t the intension.

Laughter that lingered
before silence dripped,
was contrived,
the jokes weren’t that good.

Relief as
music began again,
the cackle would go
on till dawn came creeping,
in through
the heavy red curtains,
and the fear of
loneliness abated.

harvest moon

Harvest Moon.

The street lamp is off tonight, but it doesn’t matter,
the moon is nearly full and shines enough for me to
see across the street where she lives above her café;
tall and slender she sweeps her part of the pavement
twice a day, and is resolutely right winged, believes
in publics flogging and hanging, have contempt for
her costumers who are workers at the lower end of
the social scale, shop girls and office cleaners.

I used to be in love with her until a day when a rare,
silent moment occurred, in our busy street, so sudden
it made people look up and wonder, I heard her voice;
unpleasant and hectoring shouting at the simple girl
who does the dishes, called her stupid for breaking
a teacup. I think love the simple girl she’s soft spoken
and has no pretension, smiles when she sees me, been
thinking of offering her a job in my bar,

Mother does the washing up at my place, only she has
arthritis in her hands breaks a lot of glasses and plates,
has backache too standing for hours bent over the sink;
and anyway, as mother say: “It’s time you get married,
I can’t go on forever, and you are not young anymore.”
So that’s what I will do, when the moon is really full,
ask the simple girl to marry me, and I’ll send mother to
a home for the infirm.

old salt and teeth

Old salt And Teeth


My dentist rang, mind she isn’t mine alone, bit of
a girl has many happy, grinning male costumers,
my six new teeth are ready they are almost free.
I have no qualms about that, served my country
well, years of drudgery on ships, in the merchant
fleet, hot and with little comfort; in the days when
seafarers where needed for the development of
the nation. Now there is oil. We were sent ashore
doing menial work, we who were trained for a life
at sea, reduced status; it isn’t easy, but I’ve got six
new teeth for my work and remember, with faked
nostalgia, that once, upon a time, a sailed the seas;
and can tell you stories of romance made up when
walking alone on deck and stars were touchable near