Tony Jolley Poems

I brought you roses on your sixteenth birthday …
Nearly twenty-six years ago.
The stems were long, lean and elegant
In almost exactly the way that I wasn’t.
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Not very impressive is it, for a poet:
“Stuck for words”,
Yet I am;
How could I be otherwise
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Plugged in, powered up,
Clicked-on, dropped down,
Zoomed in, scrolled up
I-conned, let down
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Bruebach’s early medieval church belfry doesn’t have bats,
I’m willing to bet,
But this year it does have as pretty contradictory a bunch of bedfellows
As one might imagine:
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They’re our stock in trade:
Persuasion;
Coercion;
Negotiation;
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Got a Golden non-Retriever:
Goes and gets it
But can’t be bothered to bring it back.
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Though I accept that our planet’s fruits are finite and failing,
The rate of population growth rapidly rising,
And that somewhere along a line I’ll probably not live to see
This is doubtless going to force mankind
...

Arras.
Ypres.
Somme.
Verdun and
...

She made my day,
Though she will never know it this side of Heaven…..

Sitting in the lee of a wonky, wooden beach-hut:
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Awkward silence
Darkened room
Drapes drawn
Hearse soon
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