Category Archives: poetry

Innocence Lost

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Growing up I loved Disney
but all those films, they lied
to me

I have been Under the Sea
(when I went snorkelling,
in Torquay):

there was no carp,
playing the harp,

nor no trout,
rocking out.

All I saw –
which made me sad –
was a crumpled, used
sanitary pad.

So listen all ye,
ev’ry last one:
believe not the song
of Sebastian
(the crab).

This Masculine Ritual

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Saturday night,
Brighton station, padlocked,
last train to London
already gone.
Seven young men,
drunk, stranded.

A lad from another group
just down the road
strides towards them.
“You startin somethin, are ya?”

One of them, shirtless,
moves towards this aggressor.
“Yeah, go on then.”
A can flies
beer sprays over the pavement,
a speck lands on me.
The brawl between both sides
sprawls over the pavement.

But this is not serious violence.
The blows thrown lack full force
as if none of them want to commit
to a knock-out punch,
and its consequences.

This masculine ritual
is like a ballet,
releasing pent-up energy
tinged with joy.
Adrenaline surges
through their young bodies’
sinews.

Two or three women
circle the males’
maelstrom.
“Stoooppppppp iiiiit,”
they shriek, to no avail.
I’m sure they know
that nothing will stop
the boys in their flow.

I move to the taxi rank
as they continue their dance
together,
into the night.

You Called Me B*tty Boy

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You called me “b*tty boy”
a word that tumbled from your mind
and out of your mouth
unthinkingly.

Would you have been so bold
had you not been with ten of your friends?
Because its always from amorphous groups
or from the window of a moving car
that that word – and others like it –
spew.

It’s cowardice.
It’s never one-on-one
that you target someone
for who they are;
target us,
for who we are.

But whether I’m wearing a dress or
whether I have a lampshade on my fucking head
do I not have the right to be me?
To walk the street,
unbothered by your hate.

Because its so boring, so uninspired,
and I’m so fucking tired
of your hate.

Maybe its just a word to you
but it sticks to me, like gum on the shoe,
like dirty grey gum on my shoe,
like dirty grey gum on my shoe.

The perils of online shopping

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Let me tell you
a sorry tale
of a friend who saw
up for sale
a baby micro hippo.

They went and bought her as a pet
and they named her, Bernadette,
oh! and how they loved her so,
that baby micro hippo.

But Bernadette did grow and grow,
from teeny tiny to jumbo,
it’s then my friend did realise,
the “micro” part was but a lie:

Bernadette, was a regular, and absolutely massive, hippo.

This caused my friend quite some alarm,
as Bernadette wrought untold harm,
she stomped all over this and that,
she even killed the neighbour’s cat.
My friend knew not what they should do;
their lounge filled up with hippo poo.

They had to rid her from their maisonette,
poor, sweet, heavy-footed, Bernadette.
So imbued with sadness through and through,
they sent her to live, in London Zoo.

So friends, be cautious, be aware,
pay attention, and take care
of what you see online for sale;
You could end up, in hippo hell.

On The Tram

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On the tram
the sharp tang of us all cloys,
like the smell of
flowers
mating in the Spring.

The tram trundles;
our bodies secrete sweat
into polyester mix.
Our odours mix,
our thoughts, apart.

East Croydon station.
We move together
across the concrete, and steel tracks.
The Sun blazes down upon us,
silent, together, alone.

mushrooms tomatoes scrambled egg

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“Café Sandwich Bar”
written backwards across
the window
mushrooms tomatoes
scrambled egg

warm golden spread
on soft white bread
brown and red sauce in
brown and red bottles
Formica tables
and blue plastic chairs

“yeah, escalators are scary”
a man softly answers
his young son’s story
a fork oversized
in the boy’s small hand

extra beans – a pound
extra bubble – one fifty
and I want this moment,
to takeaway.