THE OTHER CRUCIFIXION

You would always buy me a scotch,
then squirm with embarrassment as I downed it in one.
You knew that my being an Aries female
meant I was never going to be your coveted "Barbie Doll" type.
But you took my heart anyway and owner-branded it
with your tyre tread, and mounted it on the wall
alongside your myriad of Grand Prix trophies.
But this one you crucified alive,
then averted your eyes while it bled to death.

In your highly innovative circles they never expected me to speak,
assuming the region between my ears a vacuum.
Then when their error slapped them in the face, you left me.
To this day, I still grapple with that paradox.
Did you ever really love me as you claimed?
Or was I no more than a photogenic media-magnet,
a mere sacrifice to the Gods of  fame:
a dumb, diamond encrusted stepping-stone
to all you believe you are now?

i PHONES

An intimate table for two
in a quiet restaurant.
She sits texting on her iPhone.
All the while, he's watching her.
Neither notice the seven red roses in a vase,
nor the candle flame leaping in the draught
every time someone opens the door.
His iPhone rings.
He answers,
begins a conversation about his work.

It's your anniversary for God's sake!
Whatever happened to romance?

The waiter arrives with their dinner.
"Enjoy your meal," he smiles
and is gone.
They barely acknowledge him,
just begin eating one handed,
text and call uninterrupted.

He is first to finish.
Lays his phone on the table,
but his eyes never leave it -
apart from a split-second glance at his companion
who is still texting,
oblivious to his presence.
So he picks up his knife...
then puts it down again
to finger his phone.
The temptation is too much.
He begins flicking through "contacts",
calls a mate and begins an animated discussion
about last night's football match.

Her texting over, she lays her phone
beside a half-empty plate.
She glances across the table at him,
feels resentful to be left out
of his conversation,
so flicks through her own "contacts"
and calls a friend...

It's your anniversary, for God's sake!
Couldn't you leave those flaming iPhones at home
just for one evening?

WOOD NYMPH

I disguise myself as bark of tree
and silently lie in wait...
There is no malice in what I do.
It is my nature to lead astray
the unsuspecting hiker, lost
in the forest depths; to play my game
of hide and seek that lures him deep
into thicket and brier, nettle and Fairy Ring;
where visions compelling as empyrean dreams
slowly possess his mind...

I never deceive. The mistake is his
if he desires me as ideal mate,
then follows his delusion with lustful leer
that ravenously devours every womanly curve,
a heavenly face and eyes that draw him
to my Otherworldly domain where the compass spins
and time plays peculiar tricks: where a midday sun
bleeds to death in the western sky
and his lifespan concludes in the blink of an eye.
But oh why do I have to watch him die?

Try to see that I have no choice:
being hybrid of woman and tree,
I've no stomach for Sunday roast - no, not I.
My sustenance is limited to the Souls of men.
Yet it gives me no joy to see my half-cousins
sacrificed to keep me immortal.
So heed my warning when I tell you I'm trouble...
and if ever you wander alone in my Forest
be sure to stay focused on the path ahead
and hurry, hurry home.

ELECTION DAY

Oh what a drag!

Election day is here again.
For who to vote, I'm racking my brain.
While sifting through each canvassing flyer,
I find of their blarney I rapidly tire.
Such extravagant claims each one makes
in an effort to top popularity stakes.
It's strange how they promise the world to us
when they call at our homes and make such a fuss
of each and everyone living there,
and offer to our burdens personally bear.
For our champions they suddenly claim to be -
yes, today they're devoted to you and me,
whereas only yesterday in the street
they would cross the road rather than meet
our gaze in case we should ask them why
last campaign's promises were allowed to die.
But now they expect us to believe
from society's troubles they'll bring reprieve.
Come on guys - we're not stupid you know,
the trick you're playing is oh so low!
We're aware your ambition is personal glory,
whether Labour, Lib. Dem., or even Tory.
Is it any wonder the turnout's so poor,
in spite of your chauffeuring us door-to-door?
Can you really not see we've had enough
of your endless policies that turn out to be duff?
So give us a break and for once tell the truth.
We're sick of false hope - now how about some proof?

Oh what a drag!

OLD MOVIES

They take over my mind. It isn't enough
to simply sit and watch from opening credits
to final scene. I want to absorb them all,
to let them fill the empty spaces in my life,
to race across the moor to Wuthering Heights;
soaked in  heavy rain and cold sweat
as I breathe in the moisture laden air and run
through purple heather with Cathy:
two manic Souls on a shared quest
to find the impossible,
as wild as the hills beneath our feet.
An intoxicated brain longs to bring my body too,
to make it my story
and carve my initials on a thorn tree, beside a date
that even Cathy cannot touch...

It would be simple if this were the only one.
But there are so many - a hundred at least -
each someone else's brainchild, manifested
into old video cassettes that I can handle
and absorb into my being through nerve endings
made hypersensitive by life-long addiction.
Aah...the sensuous smell of those tapes
makes me dizzy with euphoria:
I often wish I could unravel
then re-arrange my molecules into a long
ribbon-like form and wind myself around two spools.

The first time I felt this way
was when I discovered Ryan's Daughter.
Something like an express train slammed into me
and smashed right through those deep seated repressions
that society instills into us in the name of "morals"
in it's attempt to curb our innate natural drives.
Oh I realise it was considered wrong, what they did,
but how it set my pulses racing
to observe them together in that emerald forest.
I became the voyeur no longer able to bear exclusion.
I had to be a part of it, to slip within the experience
and feel my body tingle from the touch of his fingertips...

Then someone called me "Rose"
and I found myself in Major Doryan's arms
and we fucked all afternoon.
Oh such indescribable bliss...

I thought I must be dreaming.
Then I noticed my life story playing out
in moving pictures on my skin.

CHECO

For Sergio Perez...



He's on another planet, feeling nothing
but the slipstream of the Williams in front of him.
He pulls out to overtake, gives it all he's got:
pedal to the floor, he's unstoppable today.
His nostrils flare with exhilaration.
He was born for this.
See how the spray from his tyres
gripping rain-drenched track
plumes into a rainbow arc,
while his eyes narrow in concentrated determination.

He sails by as if in a powerboat,
boring fearlessly through the tightest of gaps...
again...and again,
leaves the rest standing:
from eighteenth on the starting grid
to third in the final lap.
See his Force India's red tail light flashing
as he takes the chequered flag.

How his loyal fans roar in admiration
as he takes third place trophy on the podium.
But I guess he'll never know
of this pair of adoring eyes
at home, watching on a TV screen.
Nor of a silent heart-felt wish
to step up there,
to hug him
and kiss him on the cheek...

A MAY SHOWER

A May shower. A single drop
absorbing into parched leather sleeve.
Downpour. Tender spring leaves
dancing to it's tune.

Deluge. Running down
the back of your collar.
Heavy drops colliding
with concrete path:
an explosion of tiny droplets
leaping at the sky.
Laburnum flowers shudder
as if to dinosaur footfalls,
while curls in human hair
stretch and unravel.

There is power in heavy rain,
in it's ability to change things:
to evacuate the park, to empty streets
into bus shelters and shop doorways.
A car door slams and a man runs out
under a giant black umbrella.
By a wooden fence a wild orchid
absorbs the rain thirstily,
it's intricately spotted leaves like tongues
swallowing, savouring the moment.

Rumble of thunder.
Two young lovers kissing
under an Oak tree, trembling with emotion.
Windscreens of parked cars
are patterned with yellow tide marks
of wasted pollen, just as
black mascara has reinvented my face,
mimicing the hand of Picasso.