The Phoenix And The Raven

(Henry VIII & Anne Boleyn) She strolled like a dark phantom through my mind, An ivory vision, a sleepless shade; Haunted was I, destroyed by passion, blind. The Phoenix to the raven fate did bind, Gold to shadow, a thousand days to fade, She strolled like a dark phantom through my mind. What wit, this …

Woodbine Lizzie

Woodbine Lizzie Do you remember Woodbine Lizzie? In her many coats, heavy ‘ginst wind, Dark and moth eaten, most, And battered tram conductor’s hat Balanced on a ragged cloche That women of jazz age did not ‘leev 'ooam wiyaat’. Boots with heels, our father remembers, Pounding out cobbles Of city where she weathers each storm, …

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Surface

Still, glass, soft grey light Surface broke by plumes of white Glide, drift out of sight SWAN #fpj-photo-challenge   All images subject to copyright ©RMC Feb 2019

Old Scars and Laughter

Let’s drink to old scars And lost laughter of kings, Let’s drink to our youth And the grey that it brings. And to life’s humour Let’s raise a full glass Its tyranny keeps Us face down on the grass. And let’s say a toast For the colours we’ve seen And those we keep close On …

Hall of Mirrors

In my hall of mirrors What do you see? What do I see? A hundred different reflections of myself The child, The adult, The ghost, The ghost that walks beside me, That is me, Unshaped by my future hands, The past imprint of self That never leaves, The whispers of truth and lies And dappled …

Broken by Hand

What heart, my love What bitter chill That breaks the blade To wish you ill The words that cut Brutal and sharp In unkind speak To split a heart And take you pleasure With joyous laugh Cracked and broken To know thy craft What heart in shade What frozen core Night-time looming For evermore. Copyright …

Woven

Ah, where do I belong? Oh traitorous soul, In this page turning of self And loathing. Where made up words Fell mighty oaks In between the listless and the broken. Ah, where do I belong? Wanting more than empty boxes And fallow, vacant songs That can’t be sung. Their five minute rhymes Of paper thin …

Listen

The rain falls as it always falls on unfinished tales No one noticing the shadows that stretch away from the long light Where once the dragons danced on the tongues of men and legends were born, No one misses them Or the rubbish discarded and uncomplicated In a testament to modern living, Plastic lingering forevermore …

Shades

The moon defines us In our whispers, Forbidden. This boarded house, Papered in other people’s memories, Layered in time with graffiti, Is our haven against the outside, Against all that is so black and white And the rain that curses the broken window pane. Upstairs a tap still drips, Moments, heartbeats, seconds And we steal …

I See

I see the rain now Where once the sunlight skipped And laughter, merry, upon my tide Where only storms of dragons roost I see the fires now Lit upon angry words Where once a passion did joyful blaze And burn in happy laughter made I see footsteps passed That part upon the mud Lonely strides …