Author Archives: The Silly-Savvy Salopian

Imagining Myself to be a Poet

      Imagining myself to be a poet   Baby cradled in one arm   I wait for a flash of inspiration     Words seem to peel off my other arm   In strips, skin curling upwards,   Turning into crisps     My toddler picks one up and   eats it –Continue reading “Imagining Myself to be a Poet”

Inside Out

      Taut skin Belly button sinking.   Who are you?   I feel that you –   cannot really be there   inside me.   I don’t want to be turned inside out.   Have you got anything to do with me?   Really?   Will I cease to be real   whenContinue reading “Inside Out”

Dying Apart Together

  I saw what could be,                   Your gravestone with my   name on it, two bodies together   in death, as if we were still   living.   A strange thing to hope for,   I kept my thoughts to myself   not sure that you would   understand.     I said goodbyeContinue reading “Dying Apart Together”

Do I still know you?

Do I still know you?   The walls themselves groan with your echoing moans.   Voices like out of tune violas merge into the wailing phones.   As they ring, desperate to be heard above your din,   Even the TV newsreader gets louder, struggling for recognition.   It would be rude to cover myContinue reading “Do I still know you?”

Tutorial Notes

You will know when.   How?   You won’t have any need to ask yourself.   Why?   You will just know.   Just know?   Yes, you’ll know. You won’t need to say anything. Or give anything of yourself away. It will   just be there. You will know when.   Okay, I’ll keepContinue reading “Tutorial Notes”

Death at Christmas

The tree is up and the lights are on The glow is bright and warm   But I feel cold     The tree is real, not a plastic job   The colour is green, but parts are yellow   and the ferns are falling     The glow may be bright   But theContinue reading “Death at Christmas”

Revisiting a Childhood Home

  The smell of sleeping mouths hanging wide open; damp fumes spreading.   A pair of shoes with black melted plastic soles sizzling next to the fire.   A panting beast – it’s dreams interrupted with the occasional snore – with bottom parked on singed shoes.   A pair of red ankles emerging from beneath theContinue reading “Revisiting a Childhood Home”

Liver

  Eat it up.   It’s good for you.   Especially at your time of the month.     Why?     Why am I expected to eat a brown fibrous lump full of open caverns, jugular veins, worm casings and the concrete tubes on kid’s playgrounds?     If I eat it, I’ll onlyContinue reading “Liver”

Sibling Territory

  Magazines neatly piled –   the edges all lined up with each other and parallel to the edges of the table.   A dust-free table and a strong smell of furniture polish, toothpaste and starch.   Shirts hanging in the wardrobe;   each hanger exactly two centimetres from its neighbour – not a creaseContinue reading “Sibling Territory”

Preserve

  glass impenetrable   where is the odour   coming from?     a toe nail flickers   the liquid yellows   and thickens     can I break the crystal box?   your toes cry out   untouched, unloved     your sweet smell   grows foul   with decay     Copyright ownedContinue reading “Preserve”