Toast 25/12/2019

This time of year I think of my table
And those who share it,
No more than a dozen places.
Each year I notice some empty chairs,
Some absent friends,
Some silent faces.

This makes me grateful for my table
And for the wonders who have graced it
Over the years,
And for the mystery,
The faces
Yet to appear.

So I pour the wine
And break the bread
For empty chairs
Just the same.
We make the feast
And raise the toast,
Together we exclaim,
“To absent friends”.
(To absent friends.)

The best friends.

For once they’ve passed
All that remains,
After all the joys,
Beyond all the pains,
All that remains is
Pure
Distilled
Love.


And we take a moment
To be grateful
For this table.




Parkstreet

Ko-Fi

Pavement Poet

Baker,
Polished pavement,
Decades
Of swept crumbs.

Mundane
Boulangerie
Creates
Ode to work.






Parkstreet

You Are Wonderful

"You are wonderful",

His last words,

Spoken to his wife.

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL,

His greatest work. 

The inscription on his grave reads,

Steel true

Blade straight

Arthur Conan Doyle

Knight,

Patriot, 

Physician, and man of letters.

One word is missing.

Lover.






Parkstreet

Gone Native, song lyrics

If the letters stop coming
You’ll know I’m dead,
Or I’ve found someone new,
Or the fame’s gone to my head.

If the letters stop coming,
No words from my pen,
You’ll know I’m back on the booze
Or on the road again.

‘Cos Oregon has called me away,
It’s the most chilled out state in the USA,
While I’m gone I’ll write home every day
Until there’s nothing left to say.

If the letters stop coming,
And I guess they will,
You’ll know I’ve gone native,
Succumbed to that north west chill.

‘Cos Oregon has called me away,
It’s the most chilled out state in the USA,
While I’m gone I’ll write home every day,
Until there’s nothing left to say.







Parkstreet

Helsinki

If you wear a hat
It’s essential
To obtain an obscure
Ferry ticket,
Perhaps one from
Helsinki,
An old
Paper ticket,
And slip it into your hat band,
So when you die
Your friends 

Will always
Wonder.




Parkstreet 

Ko-Fi

Meet You There

Man,
Phone to ear,
Eyes searching street.

Tenderly,
“Oh, I see you.”
And an awkward laugh,
Because she’s on the phone
And in sight
And he’s in love
Twice
At the same time.




Parkstreet 

The Paperback Bookshop

The girl
In the polka dot dress
In The Paperback Bookshop
Doesn’t know 

She’s a poem.




Parkstreet

Ko-Fi

Drone

Electric shaver

Didgeridoo hummingbird 

Worker morning drone

Parkstreet

Comforting

The arm rest
In the middle of the park bench
Is provided for your comfort,
So you don’t have to see
Poor people
Sleeping.



Parkstreet

Peer Group Pressure

The purple
Gaseous life form
Infant
Playing with your universe
On his phone
Just raised
The difficulty level.

Tomorrow
He turns two hundred and seventy,
His first day of school,
And he wants
To impress.




Parkstreet

Ko-Fi

Never

Saturday morning and
Couch and
Coco Pops and
Cartoons and
Adults go away, and
Adults go away.

And never having
To work for bastards and
She
Never died and

adults go away, and
adults go away.



Parkstreet

Melbourne

Women wearing winter
Coats,
Black,
Pulling fallen palm fronds
From
St. Kilda beach
Back to the office
For a photo shoot.

Melbourne.




Parkstreet

Geese

Rich people
Kill the goose
By feeding it gold.




Parkstreet 

Willemyns

Staring at the space
Where the stolen Mona Lisa
Once was,

Staring at the space
Where Patrick’s cooking
Once was.




Parkstreet

Belly

The reflection
Of the sunset
On a cockatoo’s
Belly,
Is better than
Whatever you
Are watching on the
Telly.

Parkstreet

(With a nod to the great Spike Milligan.)

Ko-Fi

As The Dumb Blossoms

Non traditional

Haiku, expressing nothing

As the dumb blossoms

Parkstreet

Wake Up Sleepy Darling

Wake up, wake up sleepy darling, wake up. It's morning and I need you.

It's morning and you need to go to work. Don't go. I'll call in for you, say you've lost your voice. Don't go. You don't look so well.

You look wonderful.

Don't get up and hide yourself away in underwear and outerwear and your work face, stay with me, naked, show me your loving face. I need you. The dawn watch has hoisted the mainsail, the big top is in town, I'm harder than conjugating Icelandic verbs, I need you.

Wake up, wake up, but don't wake up too much, stay half asleep and let me woo you into staying. Your work needs you but I need you more. Your work will be there tomorrow. Of course I will be here tomorrow too, but I need you now and your work can wait.

Call it a sick day, I need you to stay and heal my pain.

Wake up, wake up sleepy darling. It's morning and I need you.

Parkstreet

Ko-Fi

The Cool Change

John
Bought a motorcycle
To work on
Instead of working on
Getting heroin.

John had never heard
Of zen
Or the art of motorcycle maintenance,
But there
He was.

Until we had five days
And five nights
Of heat
And John
Had no air conditioning.

And John
Got heroin
And John’s motorcycle
Rusted
In the rain
Of the cool change.



Parkstreet

Ko-Fi