taking stock

LIght verse: ‘stock count’

Jar of marmite & assorted stock cubes on kitchen shelf
Tidying up the kitchen shelves reminded me of this verse I wrote for a friend who works in retail:
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autumn cleaning

“September on the doorstep” – not yet a poem, but maybe it’ll grown up to be one when it’s older.

Vacuum cleaners are great, but there’s nothing quite like taking your aggression out on a dusty carpet hung on the line!

carpets hung on a washing line
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trains of thought

In the UK last month, I made quite a few journeys by train, which is one of my favourite ways of travelling. I like stations, from the main London termini, where the platforms run straight into bright modern shopping centres, to the sleepy country halts, where there’s no ticket office or porter, and no phone for miles.

Country railway station
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more mythical beasts

After the apparent popularity of the two splendid beasts in my previous post, I looked through my files to see if I had any more.

unicorn statue

Not only is this an impressive animal, but I’ve even found a poem that mentions unicorns to post with it. I am shocked, though, to realise that I wrote it nine years ago and I have done nothing with it.
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shooting stars II

Yesterday‘s narrator had all she wished for, which might be why the poem was so short. Today’s narrator doesn’t, though she seems to have realised that wishing on a star won’t help:

Perseids

The night I met you fire flared in the skies
and seams of gold were visible across
the coalmine dark. Nature had purged the dross
of normal life, it seemed. We raised our eyes
to watch with joy as stars fell round about:
each one a dream of summer love, a wish,
each an unspoken promise, each a kiss
that fanned desire and silenced truth and doubt.
And so we boldly told each other lies,
pretending to believe they could come true;
we watched those stars like lovers, though we knew
that we could not escape existing ties.
At heart, we knew the stars are fixed, not free,
set in their courses, much like you and me.