stirring our teas

we both start talking

together again

 weight

my bather is full of sand

body surfing

 Dupuytren’s 

  i gave the surgeon

    two fingers

 after the rain

what a shower we were

- come here

 redaction

nothing to see here 

• move along now

 it’s starting to rain

quick - get the washing in

cold coffee

 christmas eve 

suddenly it is

midnight

 christmas treat

mice pies and brandy cream

- extra insulin

 they flock

as a flock 

moves away

 the lake

deft at reflective

swimming

 a breath held

just for long enough

then it was over

 pressure stockings! and

the 93 year old attests

for the rest of my life!!

 avoid stress

i cannot stress this enough

believe me

 i saw the first leaf

i saw the last leaf

• fall

 have you noticed 

that wars are fought with money 

the poor soldier said

 i am writing

to a writer about writing

never lost for words

 breezy 

the last leaf the last leaf

wait! wait!

 plum blossom 

politely asking the wind

not to visit

 Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie,

Kissed the girls and made them cry.

- Now he’s on a misogyny course

 that empty feeling

when they fail to turn up

• starting to rain

 pouring with rain

being pushed in her pram

the girl with a quiff

 pouring with rain

like two bookends

into the library

 pouring with rain

in the misted up window

christmas lights

 a brief’s imprint of time

dawn

  the day takes shape

    i have a plan

we were thin 

for they were thin days

i had a jackdaw  

 2025

  has been moved to the bin

• clear all?

 home at last

spider is that really you

or a relative 

 youth

giving it all away

in the salesroom 

 global warming

those in the tumbrel

buy the mountebank’s potion

 brandy cream

the cat is as purr arsed

as a newt

 capitalism

you get what you pay for

doctors strike

 bare tree

an intergalactic 

highway of thought

 capitalism 

your manger

is a manager

 tree watching 

which of the young branches

will become the trunk

 remembering 

the tooth fairy

but not the tooth

old age 

relying on my pill box

to name the day 

 mousetrap 

every day i pinch the cheese 

  wild swimming 

 reading

the latest death toll

i wonder if

 yellow

  r

  a

  i

  n

  drip

  ping

from 

the 

lamp post

 sitting with the lady 

  with a broken hand 

    smoothing her cat

 brutalised

  by ‘the shooter’

    the english language

briefly the sunlight

of a sparrow hawk’s turning

wings of  delight 

 sunday morning

escorted into an ambulance

a woman footballer 

 one year later

the transplanted orchid

flowers again

 reading the news

the whales have stopped singing

i cried an ocean 

 light at last and

all of the sparrows are

preening their morning

she rang to say

please put on the porridge 

i’m in the castle  

 another dusk

the automatic lights

come on again

 morning light

the landscape seeps

across the wall 

 local beauty spot

  the blemish of

    visitors

 long slow

the gravel path leaves

as winter arrives 

 dawn glow

the recycling lorry

flashing 

 Dupuytren's

when i wave to someone

i give a V sign 

 stars

they never come

true

 time passes

life assumes its stanzas

retrograde future

 why don’t we

  cancel everything 

    and start again 

 not a sparrow 

  our blackcap is back!

    christmas gift

 diving into a poem

  the tsunami left me high

    in my mind’s sky

where were you

  when the world ended

    nobody asked

 wild sea

no one in except me and thee

and thee’s a ghost

 over-seventies 

  surfing the wave

    of extinction 

over-seventies 

  surfeiting the wave

    of extinction 

 the clock tower 

  in no time at all

    hidden in mist

 life force

anthropomorphic 

spermutation 

 they were just 

saying

and now they are dead

i’m just 

saying

mindfulness 

the peace of a rough sea’s

afterthought 

 under the clod

the child’s eyes glisten

beetle! beetle!

there’s     there’s      there’s

            a              a               a 

dipper

 looking back 

well I got this far

- how the hell?

 star of wonder

but in my rice bowl‬

‪only tears‬

 the dictator 

wore a shirt and tie

• so smart

sundown of sundown 

now we remember the ones

who remembered them 

 a merry dance

the shadows of tits

on a white wall

 late shift

a nurse floating

on her weariness 

 the silence

of branched snow

no footprints