6 x 4

1. 4 poems from trying to be here (chapbook}
2. 4 poems from Painting on Mirrors (manuscript-in-progress)
3. 4 short poems from Thuck (manuscript-in-progress)
4. 4 word pictures
5. 4 children’s poems
6. 4 haiku

1.   4 poems from trying to be here

alternative bios

49yr old right-handed
librarian
the surgeon wrote

not: handsome
not: charming

should have read
1950 - born and fed
on Cherry Drip Island

you're very tall said the penguin
only when I stand up said the walrus

spends most of his time
lying down

no golden serpent
no son of Apollo

totally and permanently
another wrote
recommend

but it's hard to be an invalid
while you're still breathing

and can huff paintings
onto mirrors
f'rinstance

Domum non edam

"How do you say, 'Hail Caesar!'
in Hebrew?" the elderly spinster asked.
"I wish I had your problems,"
her sister-in-law said.

It was a relief she didn't know
Or I should have had to add it to the list
Of all but useless things I've learnt,
Like "There is a swallow in the pencil box
Of my aunt" (French),
"I want to buy a television, however, where if
I should go, I could buy?" (Japanese),
"With flags and drums they marched past
my window" (guess!)
But, "I shall not eat my house"?

I needed all this resourcefulness
When my doctor said,
"If I were you, I would have had an operation by now."
"If I were you," I thought, "I should have had
A lobotomy by now."
And while he drivelled on, I mused:

But not to me.

And I don't care what it says,
I will not have a heart attack,
My cholesterol is not 7.4
I regularly swim to work, I said, as I left,
And I will not eat sardines
With Omega 3.
Omega 3 is a space station
And I will not eat my house.

When The War Is Over
or Like Father Like Son

My mother did her housework on her hands and knees.
My father sat in the corner and stared his half-crazed
blue-eyed mongoose stare.
On Fridays she would take me to music lessons 20 miles away
And at the full moon we would sit at the sanctuary
Or drive anywhere petrol would get us there and back.
At l3 I told him if he didn't get help I would have him committed
And he'd better lock his door at night. He said, 'Are you
Threatening me, son? Many a better man than you has tried.'
I said, 'There aren't many men a bullet won't stop.'
In one of my 15 year old rages I said, 'You think you're Jesus Christ
And no man is saved but he comes through You.'
He said the trouble with that was I thought I was God Almighty.
No, He forgives. I haven't quite managed that yet.

Dark Humour

She said she could tell I was sensitive
reserved perhaps because I write
about murder and rape
things twisted and abused
and don't otherwise talk much
about sex religion politics
just things I understand
from experience
like pain relieved by laughter
of the dark around the light.

The poems 'alternative bios' and 'When The War Is Over' were first published in Centoria, while 'Domum non edam' first appeared in Famous Reporter and 'Dark Humour' has appeared in Raw NerVZ Haiku and SideWaLK.