Jean Bernard Parr

I worked out the odds
getting into a fight
mostly it was crafted
stage managed, if you will
...

The cat sits on the garden wall
and slowly licks his paw
there are things rusting in the garden,
some to do with ships.
...

you got a smack
the minute you were born
there was a lot of hooha,
screaming
...

blue hued world
an apology
for crude extraction
you're in the
...

this sun,
this high ball of yellow
soon to stoop, but for now
it's the bladed cliff that's
...

I study her jars stacked on shelves
in the plaster peeling downstairs loo
(space is at a premium in our house)
papyrus labels gone archaeological
...

I no longer am
in the world
I'm really out of it all
I don't know the rules
...

It starts with school railings
That's where fear starts
Not with nailing to a metier cross
Beware, my child, upward straining spears,
...

They were slow moving
waters I waded in
when I was young
a long time
...

Gold is pollen
from the giant flowers
of supernovas
and like iron
...

I saw a golden hill today
and as my eyes drank their fill,
wished for a sky of azure blue
but knowing it would dazzle,
...

My stroke was all wrong
he said,
I watched him plough
lazy ocean swells
...

astronaut babies
with semi-detached mums
lip chewing, anxious
on mobile phones
...

when you get old
become those invisible
razor blades that
move in trees
...

There is a storm for two days
a wolfish fur-lined sea
I sit in cradle-rocked car
with the radio on, and thinking
...

They die in the gutters
the broken umbrellas
unsung in traffic hiss
slack-winged,
...

The islands prowl this unmade bed of sea
like grey cats creeping
no light anywhere
claws of gorse scratching the dishcloth sky
...

You can have
a proper family
down the pub
they are a laugh
...

I wish you could be
my cheerleader
when I push my boat
into this frisky sea
...

before Euston
it gets dark
the almost tunnels
among zombie shadows
...