Author Archives: grahamswords1962

Unkempt borders and dishevelled hedges, Discarded presents and forgotten pledges. Against slate grey skies and muffled clouds, Green spikes promise to sing out loud. Twinkling ice and pitch black nights, Twitchers scour for foreign flights. From nostrils flared come steaming plumes, Curtains draw on snug living rooms. Fox bark breaks the midnight air, We mayContinue reading “January”

In crowded sidings, off branch lines narrow and dark,The wagon beds are parked,Shunted, pushed, and pulled by engines of tired blue and green,And every shade of livery in between,Huffing and puffing their every last drop of steam.The cargos they ferry, sit patiently by, awaiting departure, perhaps a final goodbye.While up at the station, stunning spaceshipsContinue reading “24 Souls”

He knew from the day he entered the gates that he was different. No one else had his name. Juan. Why Juan? It made him stand out. The way the other kids said it, the way they said he said it – the way he said it. It singled him out – but why? WhatContinue reading “The schooling of Juan Abbeste”

The Anti Nazis gathered at Alexandra Palace,Where the Midlands’ Sid Vicious encountered AliceShe had a boyfriend that wouldn’t go,He was the punk who didn’t know. While the out of place bonehead looked for a rumble,They slipped into the courtyard for a quick fumbleShe had a boyfriend that wouldn’t go,He was the punk who didn’t know.Continue reading “He didn’t know”

I see you now, disrobed, a tryant emperor shorn of clothes,Childhood born fears that transformed to adult screams – you came so far.Played on the screens of my mind’s TV dreams, you filled my years, fate defining hate drilled tears.Fear of failure tears.Fear filled yearsFear of failing to match peers. Faces I knew, places untrue,Continue reading “The Emperor’s New Clothes”

Happy birthday star man. See the boy with the twinkling eyes, Which hide the soul that won’t hide the lies? He came to earth in a rainbow glow, His presence here, for all to know. He surfs the clouds, he sails the land, In search of pixies to join his band. Such a beauty withContinue reading “Spaceman Seb”

For what may have been and for John. On the isle of giants beneath the wings of eagles, a flycatcher sings in the bough of an apple tree. It sears the damp air with high-pitched bullets that ricochet off the nunnery rocks and out toward the Ross. Standing midway between its beak and the pebbledContinue reading “Lionheart”

For Nigel, his wife and children His green, unfocussed eyes drift aimlessly in search of a fixed horizon. Imperceptibly, lukewarm beige tea eases effortlessly down the parched cascade landscape of his throat. Slow motion eyelid shutters close then open, close then open, like a malfunctioning shop front at the end of the working day. TheContinue reading “Bean Abacus”

You slipped in like a thief in the night, undercover of so much darkness,Unseen, unheard, unknown you brought even more darkness with you.Long lasting, perpetual darkness was your perfume,Your gifted lingering presence hung in lounge, ward, and bedroom. Like a silent pickpocket you slithered through the crowd,With the deftest of fingered touches, you chose andContinue reading “Thief in the night”

Tell me please, what did they see? Those big boys in big phallic toys, So far up there, where the lack of air, Is filled with fumes from their rocket plumes, What did they see? They travelled for many miles, to see our earth, o so fragile, To view the sprawling human race, for twentyContinue reading “What did they see?”