living poems: some new and alll original work

davidgoulding84@interpoems.com


FACEBOOK

 

 I have 253 friends

the girl said to the deaf, loving wallpaper

my heart is spilled through trivialities for hours

my gorgeous cartoon life is chunked

in technicolour to sundry all

the screened and framed page moves, jumps and changes

buzzing and flashing, alive in silence all day long

I am so lucky

I would tell someone

But there’s no-one there

 

TAINTED

 

   Just when you think

                   it can go no higher

                             it doesn’t.

          and just when you think

                   it can go no lower

                             it does.

 

The eagles who, beyond distance and above mountains

dreamed knowingly awake and soared, then fell

to where their own swift shadows,

became defined and snow-lined

at the point of seizure

 

Now, are vultures who tear peck and scrap,

hysterical and blind and their claws

clutch, deadly and stubborn, the stripped bones

`of a recent yet long-deceased, half-buried,

never mourned but sadly unforgotten carcase.

 

Please:

                   give up,

                             move  on         

                                  and let

                   some dignity

                             survive.


CLOSURE

When the court has heard the last appeal
When a bedtime cosy book is read
                     and the covers shut
When the hateful storm still rages
And winter is beyond the sealed front door
                    then that is proper closure.

“That will help us find closure” 
                   No it won’t. Ever
The act of punishing or admission or revelation 
                                 is still needed, but:
Closure in the realm of death can never be.

Memory through years can dim or calm
                  but it won’t remove
Accept, go on, expect no cure
Filter the pain into those other parts of life
Send closure to the land of myth and dreams
Nightmares admitted will do less harm 


DON’T ASK FOR TOO MUCH

 

It was the same sun we felt on our eyelids

The clouds that we blinked at were ours to name.

          We felt the same breeze

          And we heard the same sea.

Bodies together, dreams never the same.

 

We touched the same earth as dust filtered through fingers

And lived the same day as we breathed the same air;

          But as eyes searched eyes

          And hands found hands

Was it really one thought as we lay there?

 

Later, where daylight had given us substance,

Fantasies filled the void round the dark tender bed.

          The pleasures seem shared

          And the dreams seem fulfilled,

But how can I know that my lyrics were read?

 

It’s fatal to seek the perfection of unity.

By wanting it all I might lose so much.

          A child, though from two,

          Is completely itself:

The future is flown, the past is your touch.


BEST BEFORE

 

   Best before the 3rd of March:

          at midnight on the 2nd 

                   it will explode

 

          Best before supper:

          as afterwards you are always

                   too tired

 

          Best before you go to sleep:

          drowsing, that milky drink

                   will mess the sheets

 

          Best before you board the plane:

          you cannot get relief until

                   you’re in the clouds

 

          Best before you start your job:

          the special year will never

                   come again

 

          Best before you say goodbye:

          those words, apart, will have no strength

                   to clear the air

 

          Best before worst:

          and worst before mediocre,

                   extremes for ever!

 

          Best beforehand:

          not underhand or underfoot

                   but footloose and handsome

 

          Best B4:

as A1 is just a little

          too ambitious

 

Best before you die:

And even better before they do.

          Ask any survivor