Lesson Feedback

Thank you for the biology lesson
Although I am sure
That I will have more questions

The words though dried up
The thoughts dried up
I did not receive the wetness of the lips

Wow the sea is magnifique
All those blues and greens and whites
All that rampant energy let loose

Beware of the heavy metals
Beware of the meditative persuasions
Savour your time for the Flaming Lips

Wow the sky is all it could be
One entire translucent blue
Jam-packed with peace and calm

So you did your A levels
Then a long spot of nurse training
To give you certainty about marjora

All of this from one simple question
About the exact location of your vulva
Also the other parts in that vicinity

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Christopher's Collected Works Website

Mornings Like These

The next line
Is the next line
But that last line
Will not be
The last line
Yet in the moment
It was the last line

Such immediacy
Often catches us out
Do you agree
Do I agree
Do we all concur

One more black dress
On the curved walkway
Over the pool
As if on the catwalk
For a Paris fashion house

One more sparrow
With insufficient crumbs
To provide any sort of wing
Yet still the territory
Is rigorously guarded

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Christopher's Collected Works Website

First Lessons

And then you were ready
With your flippers
With your face mask
With your oxygen bottle

And now you are heading out
From the thirty-metre mark
Towards the diving area
In the deeper water

Still you are on the surface
Though I only know that it is you
Because I know that it is you

Any moment now you will be gone
Already the camera loses you
In the sun-speckled waters

Does this count as loneliness
Does this count as exhilaration
Could I go further and say ecstasy

Of a sudden my back pain is gone
Your joy is my joy
Your sense of adventure is my adventure

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Christopher's Collected Works Website

Receptivity

With the sails
Tilted towards the horizon
You sail along the vast curve
Just in front of the horizon

Meanwhile the ashtray remains empty
No really, truly
Not once in the last thirteen years
Yet who knows of tomorrow

Wow that Coca-Cola tastes good
And so I imagine would
Being sat here, with a king-size
Peter Stuyvesant filter tip

Oh how much safer is nicotine
Via the imagination, or as a cast-off
From my neighbouring table
A couple in full-on drag and blow

How then to become addicted
To passive smoking, other than
Trawling the pavement cafés of
Paris, or Brussels, or Amsterdam

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Christopher's Collected Works Website

Durations

There are only a few days
And tomorrow you go diving
Only a few days to change our ways

Not that I ever wanted
Strong (or weak) liquor
So early in the day

But perhaps breakfast
Of fresh fruit and juices
Out on the decking

And maybe a life-size picture
Of the sea, with the sun’s
Ripples right to the horizon

In this way to make a life
Or rather remake a life
A life which truly did happen

September then will be the month
When one door opened
And another door opened

Available on Amazon

Christopher's Collected Works Website