Parlour Games

The pail swirls,
warm milk in circulation
Honey drips on the fireside toast
the clothes rack hangs above, slowly
steaming; and why should we have a care

That the computer game
shoots out of the car windows, that
the music talks of drugs and tarts
and fook knows what else

With nostalgia we hold back all these days
nostalgia that spreads itself
thinner than the split gossamer:
whose foreclosure on protection
scorched our clumsy love


a poem from the collection Some Trickier Poems - Love with Conflicts - available as a kindle download or library item by clicking here

Visit

It is a card
that says it was good to see you
good to share your view of the world
good to see you smile
and play that goddam awful music

Maybe next time,
when it is less cold
we can spend more time on photography
until then I will airbrush the portraits
and return them as a gift









a poem from the collection Some Trickier Poems - Love with Conflicts - available as a kindle download or library item by clicking here

December

These are the long roads
The long roads
on the dirty days of winter
These are the slipways closed
on the dark and dirty days of winter

These are the silver skies
The silver skies
a soliloquy for the solstice
These are the winter cries
of the deeper sighs of the solstice

Down the long, long road
to where two rivers meet
Down through the day
to the blackest of nights

Over the hill
at the end of the world
These are the minute lies
that unpick our way home







a poem from the collection Some Trickier Poems - Love with Conflicts - available as a kindle download or library item by clicking here

Two voices, one being mine

You said
I need to test my fears
go into my uncomfortable space
You also said not to use brackets

Well I read your book of poems
yes you talk about deep meaning
family life, untouchable stuff
childhood death; you still longing

But there on the first page
indented and bolden
brackets around the word love
(Love)

You said brackets had no meaning
but now I think they were your jailer
that here you write of love from a safer
more comfortable distance

O Christopher
You can do better than this
You can be more than a one trick pony;
here read this book – I know you will

But will I Christopher
will I make a difference?
Did I, did I Mahendra Solanki
did I make a difference?

Next year is my sabbatical
where would you have me go?

No Mahendra that’s not for me to say
Your unsettled make up is of your own making
Your undoing should retrace those steps
follow along similar rites of passage








a poem from the collection Some Trickier Poems - Love with Conflicts - available as a kindle download or library item by clicking here

Senior Moment

In this quiet time
waiting for the cobwebs
listening to the inner ear
and all our sonic reflections

Watching the winter tree waft
around in the tip-toe breeze
all is grey, grey, or should I
lighten the mood and say
not grey, but silver

But still it is a quiet time
Is it quiet with you?
I imagine you in a cottage
with an open fire, or in
a maisonette with art deco
surroundings

Wherever you are
take from  this moment of peace,
settle with your own cobwebs
listen to your inner ear
let’s try one more time to balance









a poem from the collection Some Trickier Poems - Love with Conflicts - available as a kindle download or library item by clicking here