Moonshot

I didn’t go but some of us did.

Twelve in total, good and true.

They all had their last supper

when the giant engines fired,

slamming beyond simulation,

pushing obscenely off the ground;

when the earth fell away, became

background, became a whole.

Or the casual glance back,

during a big crater bounce, at home

hovering like a football looking for 
goal posts on a lifeless horizon.

I didn’t go but in a way I did.

We all took a first gulp of vacuum

when we held our breath for them.

Bird Conference

The Geese where in the water

backpedaling against the flow,

facing the steps on the bank.

The Pigeons where on the bank

lined up and bobbing at the river

and the congregation of Geese.

They discussed the fiscal nature

of roving clouds, nesting economies,

twig shortages and thermal tax.

A motion was put forward to review

the pecking order so as to allow

a fairer distribution of soggy bread

and discarded chips, the motion was

overwhelmingly defeated and the

proposer flapped out of the room.

The meeting finished with a light

hearted discussion about plumage

fashions and under any other business

migration habits and the environment

were considered but it was agreed that

the current patterns were not a threat.

The meeting was seen as useful in

maintaining good relations and the

date and time of the next one was fixed.

Tentative suggestions for the agenda

included the human situation and plans

to streamline egg protection services.

Point of View

A wind comes

to blow the seed,

rain comes

to give it birth

sun comes

to make it grow.

Or is it that the

seed has learned

to ride the wind

so it can gestate

in damp earth,

climb sunbeams

to be tree shape.

The wind is an echo,

of past catastrophe,

reverberating in time

to one hand clapping.

It does not blow for

the tree

It does not blow for

you or me.

Negative Space

Snooker and Jazz

have one thing

in common.

For the participants

there are long periods

of doing nothing.

When Coltrane takes a solo

Miles is in the wings

smoking and chatting.

When Robertson is making

a one four seven break

O’Sullivan

is sitting in the corner

blowing his nose and

rubbing an eye.

In these moments

the player as human

is revealed.

Out of negative space time

the next solo is loaded up,

the dramatic comeback

            is plotted.

First Impressions

Before I saw that it was

a soggy Greggs bag,

empty on the pavement,

it looked like an intricately

coiled turd or the spilled intestines

of a wounded badger that had

dragged its dying body elsewhere

to expire.

Once In a Life Time

The Hellenic flame negotiated through

like a massive blood clot charging

down the leafy arteries of our city.

We’d seen it coming, rolling in

like a poison fog off the TV sea

but we could not get out of the way.

The streets were lined with cholesterol

crowds and we hoped our hastily deployed

defenses would prevent a panic attack.

As it passed, the brain became dizzy,

the heart sped up while all other functions

came to a grumbling standstill.

The civic organism shuddered with spasms,

lampposts wept multi colored tears, a ripple

of automatic response twitched hands together.

Some minor gods stepped down from Mount Olympus

like the cast from an Australian soap opera,

offering a sacred light from their antique Zippos

and a familiar tune played as the creditors

rolled their bills into cigars and smoked

the moment down to its soggy butt.

Then it was gone; our logo strewn avenues

thinned out with a Paracetamol sigh,

and transactions resumed along jangling nerves.

An autopsy found the patient still alive

and in some ways healthier than before,

though glad that this had been a once

in a life time thing.

Flower Power

There I am

in the middle

of a battlefield

admiring a flower;

possibly the last

but that’s not why

I’m interested.

Cannon balls fly,

anger barges around,

blood vessel busting

madness hacks and chops,

mushrooms fill the sky,

spurting, burning bodies fall,

agony stink fills the gaps.

The flower trembles,

unfolds its delicate moment

and the mayhem fades

into a virtual background

while DNA and evolution

insist, despite all objections,

on making their magic.