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Monday, 11 July 2022

Illume

Lights flicker in the mall

Taking time out to write

Thinking back

To when I studied the technicalities

And completed calculations

For lighting and illumination


I do know my sodium

From my argon mercury vapour

Also you too will remember

The neon lights in the discotheque

Where our white bits were made to glow

By the simplest

Of the light inventors trickery


Light emitting diodes

Now known as the ubiquitous LED

Were in their infancy

Tungsten, back then

Was the first choice

When the cost of energy was low

Quite a lot then has changed


For a little while

I mixed coloured paint

With oil on glass plates

Which I projected

To create

My own kaleidoscopic

Lava lamp effect



Sunday, 10 July 2022

Guided Tour

Walking on wet sand

Sometimes even in the sea

Out to the old castle

Climbing to the lookout


Walking on wet sand 

Taking off our shoes and socks

To let the bare feet

Feel the waves of salty water

And slow-step into or over the rock pools


Sometimes even in the sea

Watching out for the surf gods

Also the less experienced

But equally jovial, belly boarders

Beginning as beginners do


Out to the old castle 

Once a first line of defence

Against the foreign invaders

From the shores of France

Or flotilla’s from further afield


Climbing to the lookout

Master of all we see

As we shield our eyes

From the afternoon sunlight

Which glistens on the crests of incoming waves



Saturday, 9 July 2022

Nose For This

 Take the second exit

At the roundabout

Count the bare branches

On the winter trees

Name the winds

Which could blow through


Listen to Virginia Woolf’s story

Of Mrs Dalloway

Oh for the roses

With their velvet petals

And a scent 

Which any decent perfumer

Could turn into a veritable fortune




Friday, 8 July 2022

Removal Man

So so scared

By one's own anxiety


That I could crush

A lamp bulb

In my bare hands

Yet could not utter

A meaningful word


Previously

Driving for twelve hours

Collecting

What had to be collected

Half way along


Several hundred miles

Across umpteen county lines

Tarmac under the wheels

Grinding the cogs and gears

Of excruciating torment



Thursday, 7 July 2022

Tread On

 One step after another

One leather shoe

Following one leather shoe


Shoes for many occasions

Solid, reliable

Soled and heeled more that once


You would buy them again

If you could find them

If you could get your money-memory working


How many backward steps

Would it take to reach

That shoe shop, where you bought them new


That would be quite some journey

Wouldn’t it now

How many stories would  be turned up on the way


Hadn’t they been to a wedding

And more than one job interview

Most of which you did  take on


One job then another

One intentional step

Following one intentional step


One monikered stocking

After  another 

Snug-fitting, monikered stocking