Teacher Tales

Flushed

There was a day he started shrinking.

Not little by little but suddenly sinking.

No preparation, not even a sign.

In less than ten seconds; only nine.

Six foot two with muscles all over.

As strong and robust as the white cliffs of Dover.

All macho and tough; a beater of women.

Violently angry and constantly sinning.

At first, a piercing squealing sound.

And nine seconds later; he’d dropped to the ground.

Terrified, trying to find his breathing,

Frantically scrambling and constantly wheezing.

Crawling from under a pile of clothes,

Using all of his fingers and toes.

He pushed his head out into the air.

The room was vast: his new everywhere.

He was two inches tall; his little heart fluttered.

He tried to call out but only stuttered.

A squeaky staccato lost in this space.

In the frontier-land lounge: this enormous place.

Naked next to his old underwear.

Inside one shoe; the left of the pair

He clambered over and on to the floor.

As his giant girlfriend crept through the door.

She sighed and breathed out sending him tumbling.

Over and over, slipping and stumbling.

Weak and small and unable to fight,

One misplaced foot would extinguish light.

He cried and sobbed and tried to bawl,

At his monstrous victim, so very tall.

He sung like an angel, it wasn't enough.

As she stooped down and gathered him up.

He was embroiled once more in his own sweaty pants.

He took a deep breath and went into a trance.

Remembering how cruelly he'd treated this girl,

And Justice quickly began to unfurl.

He'd beaten her, starved her; she knew who was boss.

He'd used and abused her and didn't give a toss.

But now she was his only hope

And this shrinking business was no joke.

As she dropped him into the washing bin,

Desperation began to kick-in

And when he thought there was no chance

And that he would die wrapped up in his pants,

She squealed as if she'd just seen a mouse.

Vermin, in such a well kept house.

Silence for a single beat...

She collapsed upon the toilet seat.

She thought how angry he would be,

And cried out, "he'll just blame me"!

And in a moment as quick as light,

She leapt forward with all her might.

Not wanting to see a bit of the creature:

Not its nose, nor its tail, not any feature.

She looked determinedly at the clothes

Wherein her boyfriend did repose.

And spinning sweetly on the spot,

She seized the shirt, the pants, the lot

And threw them at the void below

Where only smell and waste should go.

She pressed the lever with all her might.

Her boyfriend pale and halloween-white.

And this is how he was permanently hushed.

Unbeknown to her, he was finally flushed.

A Way of Life

The basement shopping arcade 

Is warm tonight

So she goes 

Away from the pseudo-parade

The fading light

Sucked down dark stairs.

It’s true, she leads a wretched life,

Collecting cans,

Discarded goods

Amongst the needles and the knives

Her well worn hands

Reach up from gutter-woods

But she does not want pity

Fleeting glimpses

Of gold and riches

Disease spreads through the city:

Business princes

Above the ditches.

The basement shopping arcade

Is warm tonight:

A loving arm

Around her way of life.

Between you and Me

There is curious lifeform

That exists between you and me

Sometimes it smiles, sometimes it cries

But usually it giggles and grows

Not always pretty, and never in shape

But the highs beat down the lows 

It sometimes speaks in Russian

Though rarely very well

Or drinks coffee in the Baker’s oven

When debts begin to tell

He remembers winter strolls

From the Squire York

Clings on to Ozrics tentacles

And late night silly talks

This wondrous creature has evolved

Between You and me

It smashes heads with vicious pillows

And crouches over a bong

In secret cellars with new delights

Enjoying the right and the wrong

It hides behind the sofa

When the witches come to play

Hanging on to divine comedy

or accents that go astray

Its history lies in smoky nights

And often shooting pool

Or Playing Bach and Hummel

With passion showed at school

This creature is weak and yet is strong

Between you and me

It reaches out a hand of help

When we’re in a darkening hole

Or dragging kids through the walking dead

Watching sunsets that cleanse the soul

Remembers the Christmas robin

Or the circle at Long Meg

Or squealing in the mountain lakes

When fish touch your leg.

This creature is an artist

And works with paintstained hands

It bashes drums and blows on trumpets

It’s never ever bland

This creature is unique and splendid

Between You and Me

Sometimes staring death in the face

Nearly falling off a cliff

Or slipping on the cobbled stones

Growing with each near miss

It runs from mice and vermin

Or dresses like a grape

Sleeps in mouse invested yurts

But it is rarely ever late

There is no creature like it

This lifeform is our own

But it connects us wholly

Even when we’re alone.

I Cannot Conceive

I hold the giggle in

as it threatens to burst from the pores in my skin

He stands at the bar, raspberry carnation garnishing

A suit long out of fashion

And me, hoping that underneath a braveheart beats

All caveman and brute force

A source for what we both need.

Candlelit romance, and uncomfortable

Fumbling and frantic footsie whilst

Ordering up the oysters

And pints of blackberry tea

To see if the old wives were right

A natural menstrual cup

Surely enough to get things up

I wake in a sweat and confess

To dreaming of fifty shades of ovulation

then gobbling a tin of pineapple

Before leaping on his tired frame

Then hitting him and the drugs again:

cough syrup, aspirins and more

Switching to sparkling water

Whilst he can keep is impotent cocktails

And Later tugging on his fleshy testes

To cries of pain and strain or glugging

Egg whites under gestapo lights,

Setting an ovulation alarm

Consuming caffeine at a pace

Embracing every yoga place

My face gurning as I reach

my legs right over my head

bed-haunted by trans vaginal ultra-sound

intrauterine insemination, intracytoplasmic sperm injection

With no love or connection

My heart is sucked into a cruel vortex

As I realise that sex is not the only pretext

And that some thief has stolen my right.

Despite my fight, to conceive.

Searching For Me

How many years I’ve cast aside

As trees shed their leaves?

Or ambitious words spoken loud

But lost in the breeze?

Searching for some essence

And drifting in this space

Falling down, then running

In some secret race.

How many years will we hate,

The people who we are?

Beating both battle drums

And leaving many scars?

Searching for some meaning

Time is whisked away

For each sunrise that we embrace

Affords more time to play.

Guilt monsters of the past are strong

And we refuse to fight

As they close our eyes and ears

And shut out sound and light

Future hopes are all wrapped up

In golden google dreams

For what was, and what will be

Are only might have beens.

This perfectly captured rapture

Embroidered with finest thread

Besmirched by your self-loathing

Destruction in your head

Waste no more minutes searching

This, I do avow

For all we really have,

is happening to us right now

Impotence

Huffing and puffing

This once magic dragon;

Should be on the wagon

Not draggin on these cigarettes

This threat, a half time

Hanger on my lifetime

Changing room gags and snags

As you bandage up the grazes

and Bruisesof inefficient spacing

And facing the vicious fact

That the mast of homecoming

Is raised, for lord be praised

Kicking hard and passing

Out as I breathe through a hole in my arse

Can’t start the engine is clogged

Wellies trudging through the bog

A slog to shake off the shackles

Of old age tackles

Sage-like owl, looks tired somehow

With fowl like legs that shake

And tread as if up mountain passes

Too many glasses of pinot noir

Blackened lungs filled with tar

Of incessant ageing

Your team has won and your only son

Scored goal after goal

Before fatigue seized hold

With sapping strength

A tenth of what you are

Or were when you were the star.

Barely audible whistles squeal

As time’s wheel creaks rhymes

Of prog rock songs that were so long

And breathed of life and endless wrong

Of time gone begging

And forever youth

But You cannot stop it or halt it

Impotent to the portents

That float through the gaps

In the essence of time.

A giant hole, black as coal

envelopes your limbs

Go Outdoors

We trudge wearily outdoors

A plume of innocent smoke

Black as heaven

cascading freely

through a tortured sky

that holds the wails,

the cries of stolen youth.

Crushed in a fist of numb acquiesence.

We grind our teeth

and cease the shaking

with soft prayers

standing on Solomon's legs.

In this outer space where stars

glint echoes of clattering carts and 

barking devil dogs

with Nazi teeth

gnashing at David's shield.

Dividing families.

Lions torn from roses

and eaten by the skulls of innocent wolves

We dig our tabernacle

in the Earth:

a communal resting place.

Twisted bodies;

a tangled kabbalah.

It Takes Just a Second...

It’s dark on the road

The squinting lamps providing scant light

On the familiar stretch

It’s warm in the womb

The echoing drum beat giving comfort

Amniotic wrapping

The rains crying floods

The boggy Earth sucking at his tyres

On the familiar stretch

Head in position

The squirming limbs preparing for birth

Amniotic wrapping

It takes a second

The machine groans, rocks before dancing

On the familiar stretch

It takes a second

The waters break exposing her skin

Amniotic unwrapping

The car pirouettes

A monstrous ballet dancer collide

Grinding metal on metal

The child finds the light

An opera of cries and screaming

Touching skin upon skin

Life and death

The first and last breath

Daughter

And

Father

Yet To Be Discovered

Childhood.

Tiny sparks ignite and flicker

In the darker recesses At the back of her eyes

A revolution begins

The dreams won't run

Or hide

No dying embers here

But he doesn't notice.

Her mouth locks tight like a drawbridge.

Reluctantly secure

Regretful abstinence

A puppet refusal

To unleash the Brightness of new visionary worlds

Flag left unfurled

He sees and says nothing.

A dingie blown up by mouth

Life saving, breathing

Never giving in

Inflated, she raises her arm

A battering ram voice

Smashes the walls of refusal

Lightbulb eyes of hope

"I think I know", she says

He doesn't hear her.

The undaunted lioness, now with a scent of blood

Hunting, reaching out with Titanium in the veins

Excalibur rises

Her Arm raised

Be praised

Such bravery it takes

A simple, vital choice

He has to make.

He chooses someone else.

Shrivelled skin like a prune

Returning to some cave of gloom In her head voices speak

Paranoia festers deep and hopeful sparks,

Near put out.

No shout or bawl or scene

Inner melting

Anorexic dreams

The class vacate

the chance remains

Hydrogen of hope explodes

She smiles and waits until the end.

"Bye" he says, head down, laptop bound.

Adulthood

Click clack, click clack

Metronomic boredom

A dull throb

Bashing her vacant soul

An absence of goals

Not even a draw In this paranoia war

Every breath existence

No resistance

Spirit crushed

Zombie looks are ignored

Alchol warped brains

The boss doesn't care

Ping ping, ding ding

Social media, Cupid sting

Her dingy bedroom Gollum's glare from under the stair

Filled with total despair

Unaware

Her crippled thoughts,

Born from the loins of youth

Seizing her untapped mind

A tungsten cork forced in a hole

No control,

no genie to release

The genius within

She stepped off the chair.

Swish, whoosh. Swish, whoosh

Creaking sounds of strong rope on wood

The rusty swing

To devil's gate

A fateful loneliness

She breathed no more

As she swung behind her bedroom door.

Yet to be discovered.

Longing

Beautiful agony

without it there is nothing

No loving

Hoping or wanting

It starts in the gut

But crawls at first

upwards and out

inner screams and shouts

Hopeful despair

In the air

Everywhere

Infecting, dissecting

Each memory

Of them, of her

Then a gulp

A smile for a while

The hope wins out

Silences the shout

A knock at the door.

A Christmas Sonnet

A crackling fire burns bright and warms your toes.

As winter chill clings to the trees outside.

Seasons joy belies the fear and woes.

Parents hide their money concerns for pride.

Many eat feasts with happiness and joys.

Or rub their tums in hope of Christmas log.

But beggar's beg and babies cry for toys.

The seasonal goodwill is lost in fog.

Christmas carols are ringing loud and proud.

And lights shine bright in many an abode.

Yet cold for those whose voice is not so loud.

When into homeless life they find they're thrown.

So as our friends and fam'ly laugh and love.

Homeless pray for the freedom of the dove. 

Life Through A Lemsip

Ï better not", she said,

sniffling,

sipping her lemsip, dripping

into her bones,

Feeding endless moans

Groans...

Ï feel under the weather", she said,

"Need my bed"" Cocooning herself in her head

Heart , and soul of lead

Dead...

Ï just feel tired", she said

Ïn bed by eight". She wipes her brow,

Controls herself somehow

"Don't want to be in a state,

staying up late"" Damn straight...

"Not really my kind of thing",

she said,

nursing her broken wing

ointment on the future sting

To never sing

To give in...

Life through a lemsip.

The Rain Came Down

For the people of Somalia

The man smiled as the rain came down

Catastrophe, calamity clutched his hand

seized it, squeezed it.

The man smiled as the rain came down.

Raiders came, recklessly breathing ruin

Marooned and maligned.

The man smiled as the rain came down.

Hope hurried away, massacred by monsoon

Quickly, and quietly.

The man smiled as the rain came down.

Grey, grief stricken family, flooded the grave

Hungry and hostile.

The man smiled as the rain came down.

Civil war, not civil

The rain came down.