Ruben ,the teaser

Ruben ,the teaser

Ruben, The Teaser

I knew it was her when she entered the cafe

had seen her before in a fake painting behind

a bar in downtown New York this Rubenesque  

a  woman only this time she wore a short frock.

those thighs could so easily strangulate man,

and through her dress her nipples were big and

visible. She had a glow in her face of a woman

who had just made love or was going to

Forty years too old, a sigh and I concentrated on

the schnitzel I was eating with salad and no spuds.

Bachelor Days

Bachelor Day

It was father’s day he got up early and

drink coffee near the phone just in case

his daughter rang.

Then it was afternoon and he must have

fallen asleep and he fretted if the phone

had rung and he hadn’t heard it.

He went into the kitchen but left the living

room door open, he had a ham sandwich

which he ate by the phone.

It was now evening and she was not ringing

how could she a product of his wishes,

childless man,she was a figment of your dreams.

my special horse

my special horse

My Special Horse

She was a little fjording horse not much bigger than

a pony. And she liked human company and she had

a soft spot for me who was a lad no more than ten at

the time.  When she
was out grazing in the long hazy

spring evening, she came up to the fence and I could

mount her and ride bareback through the evening,

only she continued grazing she only wanted me to sit

there and talk softly about the great things I was going

to do when the sceptre of youth was handed to me.

She- dokka her name- never had a foal, perhaps she saw

me as the substitute. A child is powerless, and my horse

was sold to a horse dealer, the farmer bought a tractor

 it was blue and noisy
and often broke down that was

because the farmer didn’t understand the working of

the gear and he lamented selling the horse.

The best of time we see when looking back and I know

now the best of time was sitting on the horseback dreaming.

   

sausage factory

Sausage Factory

 On my travels on the countryside I saw this disused road

with weed sprouting through cracks in the asphalt

Followed the road and came to a village that was empty

of people, domestic animals, cats and dogs, with one

exception of an old couple sinewy with faces of leather.

there used to be a small factory here making sausages

owned by two brothers who suddenly moved away.

I asked the couple where the people had gone, France to

find work was the answer I got. The old guy giggled, we’re

 too tough! What did he mean?   In a hidden small valley

 another village is slowly being emptied, there is a small

 factory making sausages until it is time to move away.

 “Salsisias” the name of the firm, I recall buying a tin once

nice meat but a bit sweet for my taste.

     

JUST ANOTHER sUNDAY | Write Out Loud

JUST ANOTHER sUNDAY | Write Out L

udJust another Sunday

On my travel along country lanes

this Sunday afternoon I saw a tree

on yellow sun burnt field, that had

its limb cut off by a crazed axe man

A surgeon named John, had put

a bandage on the stump, but sap

or white blood, had seeped through

the bandage and I could sense its

agony and there are no hospitals for

wounded three.

 So much death on a
peaceful day I saw an

old oak that had died from an enormous

tumour on its trunk, leaves had fallen off and

gray branches were seeking heavenward,

a gesture of futility. A car ran across the lane

and I spat twelve times for luck

  

Charleston Dance

Charleston Dance

In white America there is a fear of black people the slaves

that dared answer back it has its heart in the idea of

white supremacies. Sometimes I think to be black in USA

is like being Jewish in Nazi Germany, killings and arbitrary

arresting of people who look different.

A TV program: heavily armed police descend down a black

district, they look like an invading force it is easy stop people

 and since most of them have marijuana in their pockets and

cars, the handcuffs come out and guns are drawn for what is

technically a misdemeanour.

And then the big insult, the police parking a posh car in a poor

district with keys in the ignition and open doors and since

the poor of America are mostly poor some uneducated idiots

are likely to try stealing the car. Of course they are caught and

more blacks fill what are mostly privatized jails. Something smells

bad and you need not be a Hamlet.  This great country we know it

is an illusion in fact USA is a country where the gun rules, but such

is its propaganda by press and TV lords it gets its poor people to

fight its wars. 

charger sonnet

charger sonnet

Charger Sonnet

the horses on the pampas are more

friendly than the Russian horses on the steppe

and not as cold.

A Russian horse hates mankind and never expect

preferential treatment 
and will kick you

if you show leniency thinks you have an agenda.

An Argentinean horse is easier to tame, trained

 right it will do the
tango.

The Russian horse will kick you if you approach it

from the rear as it doesn’t like surprises.

it will never trust you and it has to be tethered,

yet it is a strong horse if ridden right.

The Argentinean horse will be pleasant and kind,

up to a point because it is so easily led astray for

an extra nose bag of 
hay.

slow progress

Slow Progress (a long sonnet)

In the last seventy years, little have changed

of technical innovation.  we had radio, then

TV and now computers, all in natural sequence

airplanes still fly as before a bit bigger and

faster but the principle is the same.

And for cars they have not changed their appearance

for the last seventy years, except for  cosmetic

more colour and easier steering , yet they

still break down at regular intervals.

Politics and money mingle as before corruption

thrives and we the people pay the price.

Privatization is the latest buzz word, but we have

been there before and we ended up with poverty

so bad, the state had to socialise the health service.

Forgive me the news that man has reached the moon

do not impress as much as man has found fraternity

 which has been languishing in a basement in Lyon 

  

waterloo

waterloo

Waterloo

200 years ago Wellington and Blucher with soldiers

made up of ruffians and ISIS type henchmen, beat

Napoleon’s army won and that was sad kings and

the nobility continued to rule unelected and setting

back an European revolution that could have saved

us from a world one brought fraternity and equality

to a reality which is not today where aristocracy do

as they please while paying lip service to democracy.

And I saw them today the crowned head and nobility

safely under canvas protected against nature wilful

play, the privileged people talking about equality  while

they want nothing of the sort if they cannot control its

outcome. Flags and salutes they like uniforms and men.

Yes, for this is a male oriented celebration.

Senryu

Senryu

I’m a cowboy

Herding in reluctant words

To make a poem

Argentina’s pampas

Where wild horses live

Poetry in motion  

The gaucho

Is a free verse maker

On horseback 

reward

Reward

To live in the misery of the past unable to let go

of childhood’s unhappiness but let it fester and

grow till adult life becomes unbearable, demands

of recognitions and compensations, because their

suffering must be taken up polished and with time

a jewel to show the world. This you owe us and we

deserve what you give us, although it will never be

enough even when the gem drowns in blood by those

who got in the way of the righteous’ path.

Never forgive or forget, let hatred be your leading star. 

women who drinks and sex

Women who drink and sex

It was in Livorno and it was a cold January night when I met her

in a bar- where else does one meet women, in the salvation army?

What she was doing in Livorno beats me as she was an American

woman far from home, I was there waiting for my ship to come in.

We were both drinkers and felt empathy for one another and when

the bar closed she came to my hotel. In the morning, I had a shower,

she was still asleep  woke and asked what I was doing in her room

I told her it was my hotel room she cried; worked for the consulate.

We had breakfast, but she needed a drink to feel normal. Saw her go

 into a taxi looking like an efficient functionary   going to work, I knew

she could not keep it up the day of estimation was near, she left

a hundred dollar bill on my pillow I was both offended and pleased,

being a low paid seaman, my silence would be absolute. If she write

a book about this encounter I will somehow get the blame hinting

darkly she had been abused by me. But this is not true what the lady

long for is not being able to make love with  abandonment  and blame

 it on the booze.

the sober woman

the sober woman

The Sober Woman

Years ago a day in June I had a new girlfriend but she was

drinking heavily; 
since I didn’t at the time she stopped too

June is beautiful month in the Algarve, green and pleasant,

an ocean of wild- flowers and a lush countryside.

We didn’t live together my house is small I like to be alone

during the day. She rang suggested we go swim in the lake.

She, a strong swimmer I less so swam a metre from
shore. 

Two days sober and she was crossing the lake got a fit and
sank.

Sometimes we are tested and braver are than we think.

 I swam out got her
ashore, she was shivering clutching my hands. 

Back home I put her to bed and gave her a medical brandy,

she slept and later that day I drove her to her an AA
meeting, where

she promptly fell in love with a George Clooney  look alike.

I met her a day told me she had not touched a drink for ten
years

like so many sober alcoholics she was boring and suffered
from

a faulty memory syndrome.

festivals

Festivals

I have never been to a literary festival but I vaguely

remember getting an invitation to an Edinburgh literary

thing which, I thought was mostly about comedy,

so I thought the letter was a joke, and I’m not funny.

Watching such a festival it struck me that the writer

interviewed said what I have been saying for years,

my words are out there on the immense abstract world

of the internet, yet my uttering has set no standard

they will be an echo of the unheard poet where names

are not important but the reverberation is and will

undulate through time to make sure if we lose the tools

we will not be cannibals

Yang sing river | Write Out Loud

Yang sing river | Write Out Loud

 Yang Sing River Disaster

A sudden squall in the river and the ferry was

high in the water and it capsized so quickly

that there was no time for alarm.

The passengers’ mostly elderly people who had

saved money to do this one in a life -time cruise.

The stalker death suddenly struck this was not

the way the old had planned to die.

The hope was a bed, near family around and

there would be words of everlasting love

propped up by embroidered pillows.

The Chinese love their old people – or did- now

they are angry want to know the sea- worthiness of

the ship, private or state- owned?  Someone has to

 been found guilty, perhaps her captain?

The Savannah,

The Savannah,

The Savannah

The wildebeests have been crossing the same stretch

of the river for years going back into a foggy history and
lack

of interest. At the river, some are eaten by crocodiles 

and on the other side by lions. Meat on hoof and

a calf cannot find its mother, Gnus don’t do friendly and

there never is a sympathetic aunt. It must find its mother

now, because it has been earmarked as a possible meal,

 easy to catch, no
bother.

Did that calf survive? I don’t know history does not concern

itself with trivialities and as for its mother her memory is

short. A dumb beast, yet there are more wildebeests in

Africa now than twenty years ago which means fewer lions

and more crocodile handbags than before, which means

the calf probably survived

a dream called Israel

A Dream Called Israel (Odd Sonnet)

The Jews of Israel or rather, the settlers suffer from

a common psychosis that makes them quite on edge

they believe everyone is about to kill them, not

an uncommon assumption, but their deep insecurities

is an inheritance from the holocaust in Europe and not

in any Muslim countries. True when Israel was declared

a state Egypt Jews there were expulsed, which I think

was a mistake, it is worth noticing that the Jews of Iran

are well respected there.

One hopes a great politician will appear in Israel, one who

can steer the Jews back from the abyss, find peace among

its neighbours, see themselves as members of  the middle

eastern sphere and take it from there.

African Elephant

African Elephant

To the small German town came the circus and it

had amongst many animals also an old elephant.

One morning it broke loose and took to the woods

where it met a man of seventy-five out early to

pick wild flowers for his wife, the elephant charged

killed him, to make matters worse ate the flowers.

Death comes in many forms, but this was a surprise.

The animal was shot, where could it possibly hide

a tiny forest bordering a little town and a motorway.

The keeper of the elephant cried too they had been

together for twenty years and could not understand

why his trusted friend had gone mad. 

The Great Migration

The Great Migration

The Great Migration

Millions of shoeless feet stomping across Europe

an unstoppable horde of the rootless and hungry

humanity mostly from Africa.

the human wave is a tsunami no wall however

tall can withstand it and Europe will change from

white to brown and there will be a synthesis of

cultures both exciting and frightening.

Great books will be written by those not yet born but

will represent the new Europe and make sense of  it.

I will not be there, but I think Europe will prevail.

When only snow is white the new people will overcome

the barriers of the race purists who tried to stop them 

Expanse of time

 Expanse of Time 

The past is a bridge where I once stood tall upon a time

when chocolate was rationed and oranges were only eaten

at Christmas and it was a sensation when a ship loaded

bananas came in. I was proud then of my heritage, we were

special and the future was a beautiful landscape.

the bridge, made of wood took fire and fell into the river

that had stopped flowing we had used too much of

the world’s resources and now the future was unpredictable

as we naked stood on the holy mountain the earth shook

and humbled us- This year the banana boat will not come in,

the vines, dry and wizen was not a future I had foreseen.

future unforeseen | Write Out Loud

future unforeseen | Write Out Loud

future unforeseen

I was flipping burger it was my birthday

and I was 25 years old. It was a late night burger shack

we had our shares of drunks and good

time girls and they behaved nicely and sometimes

I followed one of them home so they didn’t have to face

the morning alone in the trailer park.

And since it was by birthday I wondered if I would be

flipping burger 50 years from now.

These days I flip words around served with French

innuendo and tomato sauce made of frustration.

 but it could have
been worst I could have been frying burgers

but being 75 walk home alone 

cakes and ale

Cakes & Ale

I woke up in a bakery they do start early, the aroma of bread

is wonderful, they were also making cakes, whipping creams.

Napoleon cakes and Danish pastry, black forest gateau and other

pastries I have as a child looking through the windows of a bakery

shops admired. Too much, I walked outside and lit a fag, inhaled

deeply and the tobacco soothed my mind, giving me a feeling of

fullness. It was only then I remembered I have diabetes, a heart

problem and have not smoked for 15 years. Has it been worth it

this forgoing of the good thing in life; I’m not sure, it may extend

my life for a few more years of pain and misery, will I die regretting

the cakes I didn’t eat and the fags I didn’t smoke?

A Rat

A Rat

A Rat

it was dawn about six o’clock the phone from the bridge of
the ship rang,

time to get up. I had been sleeping on the couch put my feet
on the floor

and between them a big rat escaped the door to my cabin was ajar
it

got out. I said nothing no one had seen the rat no point
making a fuzz.

 I made breakfast for
the crew. The chief engineer was a bit late I walked

up to his cabin, to call him, in his bedroom fast asleep the
rat snuggled

by his face, by the sound of my voice the rat quickly disappeared
and

when the chief was fully awake it had gone.  I did notice when he was eating

there were rat hairs on his unshaven face, he complained of
an odd smell.

I said nothing had a schedule and lunch to prepare.

Thinking about it now I might have been wrong, I sometimes
have problems

sorting out dreams and truth when telling a story     

Ernest Hemingway reread

Ernest Hemingway reread

Ernest Hemingway reread

Hemingway was a writer suffering from a crippling

shyness the conversation he has with women in his

books are based on wishes and not reality,

Women in his life were so much stronger than him

he tried to compensate for this by bawdy actions

but it always ended with him stroking the cat and she

going back to USA.

Ernest Hemingway was a averse alcoholic he made

a life where he or his heroes took the centre stage

He at times wrote like an angel and there are lines

in his writing that are high class poetry. After reading

his work again and setting aside the bragging factor

he was a great poet.

TV Reflection

TV. Reflections

The news is deeply depressing, except for a Yemeni

woman activist trying to explain to a dense reporter

that Yemen do not need outside interference.

The reporter wanted to know about Iran, everyone

does, the Saudis and the Israelites.

Iran is a big regional power and has influences in

the regions... big deal.

I turn to the weather forecast, drizzle in Singapore    

and that is not so bad. I have never been there

Only seen pictures, a sort of place only businessmen

Would like to visit

Blustery in Oslo, that brings out a giggle, serves it

right, the people live in fear that foreigner will come

change their hardy culture- beer and street fights-

little do they now that Norway is not on top of the list

where the unsheltered masses like to go. 

the god dimension

the god dimension

as the sparrows flies | Write Out Loud

as the sparrows flies | Write Out Loud

As The Sparrow Flies

It fell from the summer sky the bird, dust on roadside weed

not pretty place a flutter of its wings and then nothing.

It, a sparrow didn’t look particularly old and birds can
live long,

but the call to joined the celestial heaven had been sudden

and no time for spring rituals, sitting on phone lines
flirting.

God’s canary bird had escaped its cage – it had read a book
that

God was not great- and she replaced it with a much lowly
bird

grey winged- yes, and quarrelsome, they tend to be and they

will be asking questions. I know of a couple they have a
nest near

the roof terrace when I go up there they never stop their
shrilly

thrilling until I leave feeling hurt because I know where
they live

 on the third roof
tile to the left, and I know they have shat in

my deck chair. They have produced fledglings which have
turned

out to be as uncut as their parents, but I have said
nothing.

Sometimes I wonder if full freedom is good, as humans and
birds

we think we have the right to rule the world but we are
leaves

blown off the tree and we now little of tomorrow.

endless road

Endless is the Road

I have for some time not been eating boiled cabbage and it is

of not the slightest importance unless it has been boiled with

pork shoulder ham. I just say this because we had dinner at

a restaurant  for once I was not driving since  we were taking

the motorway  a toll road where all the crazy people assemble.

 Big powerful cars driven by men who have not yet mastered

the mantra my driving instructor repeated: you drive the car it

doesn’t drive you.

I dislike driving on modern roads, they go on forever and I get

the feeling of a prisoner, a man who looks out his barred cell

window and sees only the landscape’s seasons but cannot touch

It inhales the aroma. I shall never be free of a past imagined.

I demanded she stop the car, I was going to walk home, a feat

I’m not capable of, I demanded a cigarette – we don’t smoke-

she gave me 5- milligram valium, as ordered by the doctor, and after

a break, we somehow got home.