Last night of the proms

don't wave your bloody union jacks at me
how can you so blindly sing
that britons never shall be slaves
without any shame
for the millions made
in Britain's slave trade?

lmc14-6-11

The first goldfinch

A tiny, red-faced bird lands,
First goldfinch on the new feeder
So much hope realised
In one so small
Come on! Bring your friends!

LMC 28 May 11

15 May 2011

It took me by surprise today,
the date. Was it the shock
that meant it hit me harder?
32 years on, it’s rare
for the memory to floor me
Stupid, I'm now too wobbly 
to drive to Margate, to his grave

Alexander Technique

I follow my cat down the garden
To my favourite seat
She stalks like John Wayne
Though lighter than air

I follow, practising poise
Alexander-style
Trying to recover
A child-like grace


This way of sitting
Is certainly kinder
On my back, and stairs
Now rarely pain my knees

As I float into my new blue seat
It seems this way of moving
Can be effortless,
when I get it right



LMC 8May11

freedom

freedom's in sight today
an end to this
pre-redundancy ghostwalking
it's a new day
and I'll probably work harder
than I ever have
to make it good.
Just as well
I relish a challenge

LMC 21 Jan 2011

the temptation of writing

Brian said tonight
that I could just
become a writer

only now does
it seem a
real temptation

sure, he then said
I could write my name
twice monthly for the dole

but the idea of it
seems headier than
even travelling

scary in its loss
of pecuniary
safety net

but such a luxury
to do unfettered
research

to write, to read
untrammelled
from the daily grind

can't ask him now
at 1am, but was
he serious?

LMC 19-dec-10

Corrosion

This redundancy assessment
is so much bile
it seems unseemly
for them to take such
pleasure in it

Reading it
corrodes the spirit
Glad I've finally
plucked up the courage
to make my measured appeal

As Brian says
I'm better off away
from such vituperative
falsehood
what does it do to them?

And the irony is,
as I see at 1am,
that none of this
was necessary,
could have been avoided

a calm, skills-based assessment
would not have warranted
any appeal to clear my name,
had they but known enough
about their staff, their skills
.

LMC 18-Dec-10