COLD WIND PROMPTS BITTER TEARS

A number of poems this week, in various stages of repair and revision.

This first was sparked by a memory of the transistor radio I had when a boy. The reception was never that good, the station would drift and require unending adjustment.

the metaphor for our relationship would have to be a cheap transistor radio all brittle plastic bad wiring and an inability to stay on station. you could hear the encroaching static crackle robbing either of us of any real rest. in the end I got earache and switched the damn thing off only to discover that with the right poisoned atmospheric conditions I can still pick up your contempt like tinnitus or a bad toothache

Possibly the trouble with the relationship described was that the players stopped wanting to adjust?

This next one was inspired by seeing some magpies gleaning the verge of a dual carriageway on a cold February day. The cars, myself included, were speeding towards their destinations and as I drove past I thought of how miserable it must be to be out on such a day.

scrunting starvelings

side verge haunting

iced grass and frozen ground

cold wind prompts bitter tears

once they were the masters

claws ripped teeth tore

they took what they wanted

times change they live in the margin of the speeding road

unnoticed in our petrol fueled haste

jostling seagulls for street light perches

Again I am not sure if this poem is finished. Scrunting is a Trinidadian word for and I quote: Seeing hard times. I thought that as birds are descended from dinosaurs who once ruled the world then that February day was hard times indeed. 

This last poem came about as I emptied for the last time our old car before it went off to the scrapyard.

I empty the car of meaning

of all I can use again

load memories into a shopping bag.

Inert beyond repair,

the metal husk awaits

professional gleaning

this will be all of ours future

Again I am not sure if it is complete. Your views would be appreciated.

The poetry group I am part of, Juncture 25, is doing a reading tonight and I must go and sort myself out. Actually I need to decide exactly what I am reading.

None of the photos I am posting this week bear any relation to the content either...Have a good week.