Mortality Games
By Parson Thru
A game for all the family
- 1234 reads
A man walked into a bar
The End
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- 9 comments
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- 771 reads
All change here
Additional stop at Great Salvation
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- 5 comments
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- 876 reads
Blue
I had a cat named 'Blue' rhymed with Kalamazoo Grey with stripes a tabby My mother hated cats a family thing One suffocated a child allegedly But he was only six weeks old A kitten
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- 8 comments
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- 823 reads
Dad
Afraid he’s passed away? Oh, thank you. Well… that’s ok. You see… we thought he might. He wasn’t meant to last the night.
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- 4 comments
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- 763 reads
Dreaming of my dad
I’d forgotten how much he said with his eyes. A man of few words. Happy to sit most of the time in his window seat, reading his paper or lost in contemplation.
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- 1941 reads
Funeral
There must be a funeral going on somewhere Miserable day for it
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- 10 comments
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- 700 reads
I want to phone my brother
You can't
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- 6 comments
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- 618 reads
John
Just a little short. Sun's shining - bike's in the garage.
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- 5 comments
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- 454 reads
Marion's hairbrush
Blackened silver plate and matted bristles stare accusingly from foetid water in the shared recycling bin
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- 16 comments
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- 1160 reads
Monday
I arrived into the office full of the usual start of week melancholy and immediately detected a far deeper gloom already present.
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- 364 reads
Monday (2)
I laboured through the day.
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- 3 comments
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- 360 reads
Send no flowers
Quicky thru the train window.
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- 7 comments
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- 597 reads
The bar
He walked into the bar. At the tables sat the usual faces, mulling their drinks. Each bottle and glass was covered in sticky red fingerprints.
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- 18 comments
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- 1185 reads
The darkening of the garden
Watching God rotate
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- 10 comments
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- 1105 reads
The Grim Raver
Where'd that come from then?
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- 8 comments
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- 848 reads
Thoughts from a sofa
A ramble
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- 11 comments
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- 1074 reads
Visiting Jack
What did you die for, Jack? I ask as I sit by your grave a long way from home and take in the sun and the cooling breeze of a French morning like you would have known
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- 9 comments
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- 871 reads
What did you die for Jack?
Rewrite 7 October 2012
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- 16 comments
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- 1108 reads
To The Dead!
The two friends stood looking down into the grave as the first shovels of dirt clattered on the coffin lid.
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- 9 comments
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- 1065 reads
Walls have ears
Continuing adventures
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- 11 comments
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- 972 reads
The three amigos
How news travels fast
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- 18 comments
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- 2097 reads
The turning of the tide
La discusión sobre el filete / The lost supper
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- 4 comments
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- 439 reads
The reading
How Javier relented and became reacquainted with his friend
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- 6 comments
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- 780 reads
Sunday evening
I’ve just had a full-on attack of consciousness. Wandering about the flat of a Sunday evening, I mixed myself an Aperol spritz in the kitchen and...
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- 390 reads
The dying
So the putrid, sick body dies beneath us – we who haven’t already died living – and the industry moves in to keep us out of sight.
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- 327 reads
A fairly pointless ramble
As I said...
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- 191 reads
The visit
I have no idea how long I’d been asleep. Maybe an hour or two, maybe less. Someone was playing guitar – quite well. Better than I could have. But so...
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- 687 reads
Never look down
Walking the edge The razor’s edge Don’t look down Look straight ahead Smile Play to the crowd Keep moving - always Riding the the gusts Wait... Use...
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- 7 comments
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- 551 reads
Cantarme
A song for all the fake hobos
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- 5 comments
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- 482 reads
Question
My God! What is family? Where is home? And who are these people I love being around if not family? And where is this place if not home? Where is life...
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- 4 comments
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- 365 reads
Bumping along
38,000ft over Biscay. Bouncing around the sky like we’re all going to die soon and I’m chuckling, embarrassingly, at HST’s “Fear and Loathing”. The...
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- 306 reads
Sorry
I'm sorry for the double / treble spacing, but at this point.......
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- 291 reads
Good Friday
I just coughed on the touch-screen. Nightmare.
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- 4 comments
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- 363 reads
Today
An interesting thought: a sense of danger is a key animal faculty for survival. It develops from childhood, overpowering us in old age. They key to...
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- 146 reads
A universe in a box?
Kerouac is telling me of the Universal Mind. I like the idea, but not sure my practical mind can accept it. How about the universe in a mind? Each...
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- 150 reads
Girl on a horse
I’ve never seen her so happy So naturally fitting the scene Each photograph a testament To a woman and her dream Observe the girl on horse-back...
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- 5 comments
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- 560 reads
See me?
Standing in my father's shoes
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- 7 comments
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- 571 reads
Listen!
The grass has been cut for the very first time.
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- 5 comments
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- 451 reads
Happy Easter!
Healthy living. No such thing.
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- 4 comments
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- 418 reads
After Jack
I got to thinking
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- 4 comments
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- 490 reads
Keep in touch
After a while, you get used to the sound of the shelling. So it’s hard to imagine a world without it. I can usually tell ours from theirs – theirs...
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- 13 comments
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- 1633 reads
Poppies
Move along. Nothing to see. Scarlet. Arterial. Irregular. Tragedy not long gone. Aftermath. Aftershock. Immediate. Not yet dulled. The pain. Sharp in...
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- 248 reads
Scribbles
It occurred to me while contemplating these scribbles that most of them are attempts at capturing the moment when two or more souls recognise each...
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- 425 reads
Friday prayers
Filed under Miscellaneous to defeat Plato and Aristotle
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- 11 comments
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- 1303 reads
Modulation
Music drifting through the trees. A summer's day borne on a breeze.
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- 171 reads
Post-trauma
Last Tangle in Paris
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- 5 comments
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- 521 reads
On reading the headlines
I broke my news blackout on the train home tonight
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- 4 comments
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- 634 reads
Something missing
Life overtaking youth
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- 9 comments
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- 740 reads
Thursday tomorrow
It's Thursday tomorrow Hurray! Another weekend and a lie-in But we're all getting old and we're dying Hurray! Hurray! We're all getting old and we're...
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- 2 comments
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- 419 reads
The gun
It didn’t really matter where he picked up his work. The people were always ok. The money was reliable. They always paid on time and it was enough to...
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- 221 reads
See you again
A signal drifting out
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- 2 comments
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- 358 reads
The years
You bear them You name them You spin them off You hope not to bury them Then they become like you A name given by someone else Brand new in a distant...
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- 206 reads
A solstice death
Samhain sets the scene. Yule closes it.
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- 472 reads
Song for a soul
More strange than any page of fiction Deeper and more raw than all the words of Sophocles, Shakespeare or Stoppard More beautiful and out of reach...
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- 3 comments
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- 362 reads
Beautiful
Oh, beautiful An empty mind in which thoughts can swim A place for dreams to meet A world of whispered messages Fractal scenes without an end I sense...
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- 4 comments
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- 413 reads
Blow wind Blow
Blow, wind, blow! Your chorus and your overture The howling pain of every soul Moans against my window Rage, storm, rage! You are the spirit of the...
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- 12 comments
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- 1154 reads
God bless
Funerals. Bittersweet. Depends on the circumstance, I suppose. We’re going through the passing of a lot of people right now. A big family. It’s the...
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- 20 comments
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- 1051 reads
Auchwitz-Birkenau 70
How could one human being enslave another? How could anyone design and operate a business whose purpose was to kill fellow human beings in cold blood...
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- 172 reads
Barking at dogs
I wake to the sound of people barking at dogs and I’m back My mind replaying meaningless scenes Dreams of reality Head spinning with things I need to...
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- 8 comments
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- 559 reads
Two souls
Two souls roaming Drifting without end In emptiness Seeking satisfaction Knowing that there is none Filling in our time Without any reason Trying...
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- 304 reads
Enjoy the roses
Don't kid yourself that life is all gingham curtains and flowers on the table. You're only putting off the inevitable torment. Keeping reality at bay...
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- 4 comments
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- 368 reads
First call of the cuckoo
Eastertide
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- 138 reads
You and I are a binary star
You and I are a binary star I'm so in love with what we are You and I are a binary star Our light will shine clear and far You and I are a binary...
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- 267 reads
It hit me this evening
It hit me this evening: the passage of time; of things, events, memories and people; people just like you and I. I remember the models: Spitfires,...
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- 10 comments
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- 501 reads
Night-thoughts
It always seems set against you Victories Little wins eclipsed by failure If you stand still it overtakes you I guess that's why you have to keep on...
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- 9 comments
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- 516 reads
Just like the sun
Lying in this field in June's evening light I think about three things: how we're born, how we die, and about the sun that burns my face; how these...
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- 4 comments
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- 333 reads
Let's check out forever
Let's check out forever sometime See how long it lasts
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- 6 comments
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- 515 reads
Her dream
Drifting down upon a river Secrets open to the sky
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- 7 comments
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- 383 reads
Earthstruck
I’m reading my course-book on the train. It’s one of those July evenings when the sun details buildings and illuminates trees as rain etches...
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- 186 reads
Step Inside
So long. So long ago, I fell for you. I was eleven. You were thirty and married. I carried your photograph, from a newspaper, I think. Beaming smile...
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- 11 comments
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- 540 reads
Samos
I watch the autumn leaves drift by Turning, tumbling, sinking to the mud Autumn's great farewell A fleet of waterboatmen dart through sycamore and...
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- 8 comments
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- 503 reads
Inner-dramas - Rabanal
It didn’t rain all the way from Astorga to here, but I can see it’s just started falling in the simple stone street outside the window. Like so many...
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- 4 comments
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- 386 reads
On meeting Jesus – an imagined argument
I had an imagined argument. It was along the lines of “What would you ask Jesus if you met him?” It bubbled to the surface whilst thinking about the...
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- 418 reads
Becalmed
No wind Or rain No rivers Or trees No people Or conversation No sun Or moon No motion Or pain No sacred Santiago No scattering-wide of souls A...
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- 18 comments
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- 1316 reads
The witness
He woke with a pale-blue sound in his ears, like an empty sky. It sounded like peace. It looked like a dream, but he knew it wasn’t, on account of...
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- 226 reads
The untimely passing of truth
Out of the shower of anguish comes the blood and guts of it all We shake our heads in dismay and disbelief Blame is laid alongside the remains and...
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- 292 reads
Journey's end
It looms large for some reason tonight, The loss of these things: Life, Breath, The beating heart, The old familiarities. The scar on your thumb. The...
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- 195 reads
Thoughts of a madman
God awoke and rolled away from the sun that streamed through the window into his eyes. His mouth was dry and he needed to piss. Reluctantly, he gave...
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- 9 comments
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- 688 reads
En los Jardines del cabo Noval
I'm watching the kids playing football in the sun. There are many times when I sit and think there’s nothing more to write – that I have nothing more...
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- 5 comments
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- 375 reads
Stuff and nonsense
The bathroom is a great place to contemplate the divide between the spiritual and the temporal – the pure and the corrupt. A fitting setting to...
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- 4 comments
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- 332 reads
A rainy night in York
History is flooding back from all directions. The low brick building passed on the bus, boarded-up and abandoned, I’m sure is where my mam and dad...
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- 5 comments
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- 462 reads
Everything is gone
The infinite silence
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- 11 comments
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- 649 reads
The Alps Cranial
I found them on the back of my head The Alps Cranial Hiding god-knows-what beneath They must have been present in school-boy days Beneath the tufts...
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- 227 reads
Making the most of it
It took a beat-up, pungent tramp passing through the Metro this morning to remind me that a healthy life is one of distraction – denial of one’s true...
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- 394 reads
Hope springs eternal
Is God simply Hope? Where are we without Hope? Where are you and I? Why drag ourselves through the hardship and the tragedy? For a few all too scarce...
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- 3 comments
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- 270 reads
She follows me in dreams
Not really haiku
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- 142 reads
Hereditary fears
His face is twisted, mouth contorted, demons dancing ring-a-roses round his head Brow creased, ears filled with voices jibing, teasing, criticising...
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- 2 comments
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- 755 reads
Raking up the past
“I love you, son.” “I love you, too, dad.” It’s all I can remember of the pained conversation, crouching on the footpath. One of us kissed the other...
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- 4 comments
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- 253 reads
Night
It's life It's absolutely life Cody In a borrowed suit Denver downtown Catching dames staring Awkward Me Home by six Keeping going Doing Thinking...
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- 6 comments
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- 460 reads
Time
You’re watching yourself in the mirror and seeing the setting sun
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- 104 reads
The need to know
The two men sat across the table from one another. To look at them, they might have been father and son. They were brothers. The younger one spoke...
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- 148 reads
Fall to Earth
There’s still some time to dream
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- 3 comments
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- 221 reads
Another soul
And another soul passes One among tens of thousands today Some of them screaming He, quietly holding the side of the bed Waiting But he was my soul...
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- 198 reads
The wind in the wood
With love
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- 156 reads
Diminishing returns
I think of my head inside this world, within this existence, and I'm thinking “Fractal”. But where is order? So I picture kaleidoscope landscapes of...
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- 146 reads
Time and motion
It seemed so natural then
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- 4 comments
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- 327 reads
Fear of existence
Fiction based on real-life events... and a few musings. Approach inspired by JK.
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- 2 comments
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- 680 reads
Tonight
I got done by the Chinese shop Well and truly stitched Not their fault I should have said something Or just walked away and left the bag But I didn't...
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- 147 reads
Daisy
I am no more than a daisy A daisy with awareness And some vague idea Of its place within the universe
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- 4 comments
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- 181 reads
Mulanje and the sky
Inspired by a forgotten photo
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- 156 reads
A problem shared
Fare thee well / welfare and the shared experience of unique beings
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- 2 comments
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- 299 reads
Knowing time.
I’m in my local café having breakfast: coffee and toast. This place suits my temperament. There’s nearly always an empty table, Salsa plays on the...
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- 157 reads
Restless
Restless, I roll onto my side and reach into the darkness for the switch.
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- 1 comment
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- 187 reads
Reina Sofia
From a bench. Watching. Thinking. Being.
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- 235 reads
Fissure
Our ghosts live within, maybe
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- 4 comments
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- 320 reads
Four young men on a playing field
Everyday impossibilities.
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- 3 comments
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- 279 reads
The race against Time
Time lifts his finger from your tail and your feet scratch at the earth
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- 1 comment
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- 162 reads
We are here
I gave up counting poles and settled for the rise and fall of wires Thoughts setting out on journeys of their own oblivious to strangers’...
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- 1 comment
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- 242 reads
SITREP
Waiting, out, in No Man’s Land
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- 10 comments
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- 506 reads
The awakening
For Bernard (1939 - 2017)
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- 2 comments
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- 309 reads
What God is
God is oil God is gas God is a Tomahawk up your ass
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- 4 comments
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- 497 reads
Patio thoughts
What sights have these olive trees known? What sounds? Today, the tranquility of a museum patio; the fountain’s soothing trickle. In years past,...
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- 1 comment
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- 260 reads
Glorious Dead
Where is the glory? Who gains?
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- 4 comments
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- 287 reads
Trying to understand time
Amateur ramblings inspired by a visit to the Lee Lozano exhibition. Only read if interested in such ramblings.
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- 2 comments
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- 256 reads
The elephant
For corporals everywhere
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- 2 comments
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- 282 reads
To those who lost their footing
I’m spending more and more time telling myself I no longer care.
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- 4 comments
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- 208 reads
What poetry is
Wow is woW spelled backwards. The muse isn't with me on this trip.
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- 11 comments
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- 465 reads
One for the road
A quiet moment
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- 5 comments
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- 262 reads
Inheritance
I caught him last night, in that sideways glance
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- 7 comments
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- 508 reads
Golden hour
The sun slants, bright and golden, down Calle de Alcalá. Poetry Monthly - September.
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- 5 comments
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- 370 reads
Living with the curse
Why can't we be like daisies?
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- 73 reads
This is what love is
For N
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- 2 comments
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- 138 reads
Filling time - 2
William picked a stone up from the water’s edge. He turned it over and saw that the moist surface was covered in small black snails. He picked up...
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- 15 comments
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- 360 reads
Apparition
You wandering bag of cancers Innumerable tragic parts How can you stand and look like that? As though nothing’s going on
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- 6 comments
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- 182 reads
So long
Everything to come and all there ever was
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- 14 comments
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- 550 reads
The thing with our birthdays
When all’s said and done It’s just some miracle trick of light
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- 58 reads
Contact
The two men looked at each other. The sun was hot. Even the air burned. Moments before, they had startled each other. Neither man had been sure what to do next.
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- 4 comments
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- 176 reads
Worse ways to go
Inspired by T.S. Eliot "The Waste Land"
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- 2 comments
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- 115 reads
What is this life
What is this life, so full of holes This broken dream of drifting souls
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- 12 comments
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- 309 reads
In the bottom of a boat
A prose poem
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- 4 comments
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- 166 reads
Carboniferous limestone
A tale
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- 5 comments
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- 231 reads
The art of keeping going
Thursday 14 June 2018. Could be worse (14 June 1918, Northern France).
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- 7 comments
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- 243 reads
The minutes and the hours
Slowly, surely
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- 7 comments
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- 145 reads
Atrophy in orange and blue
Nocturnal thoughts
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- 2 comments
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- 66 reads
Changing history
Proposed rewrite of part 17 and closing scene of "Boatman's Tale"
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- 5 comments
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- 134 reads
Nicola, I owe you
How I came to be here. Why I remain. People. Gracias Nicola, Tariq, Rafa, Claudia, Sandra and Pietre. And anyone else who might be in the reckoning.
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- 59 reads
The meeting - good friends
Opposite sex friendships - are they really free of hormonal interference?
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- 8 comments
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- 223 reads
Needling a hay-stack
A darft song
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- 59 reads
Lost in a space
More overblown nonsense
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- 9 comments
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- 238 reads
Sin titulo
Sin título - no title5
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- 2 comments
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- 76 reads