On princesses

it's so heavy showroom time
so finger in the briarwood
why not let the in-house
team strain off the quest

delivery can be reliable
bedroom express and fit
in gloss matt bone china
or upholstered subject
to classic purse strings

with statutory indoors and outdoors
expect queen-sized cool next the skin
fully injected gold silk lacquer
against damaged possibilities
value-added is the children's range

if or when lines and shadows
strike through the warranties
sleep easy sleep long in
the dream contours of
perpetual life makeover

no stains no pain
no returns either with
pre-planned all-exclusive
personal dispatch
by royal appointment

in a choice of finish



On forestry

the living stand tall
in the graveyard harvests
deconsecration is heavy air
is stripped wood disinfectant

catch your breath before
we go under the perpendiculars
grateful for even these
small bird anthems
rustle of misericord
until a dark door shuts

how many parishes
to the first window filled
with corn glow or shepherds



On bells

as in the shell
bursts wave on wave
so the toll of these is earth
and its heavy losses
of woods once unploughed
meadows without sourness
poppies before wire

incoming again to
the same sound crater
what are the chances
composite of lost
domains botched relief
and the tallest of tales
the strike not once
not twice but triple
unlucky lucifer
still if you knows
a better hole go to it

sniping the perimeter
birds of no-man's land
persist with the territorial
a last bit of old soldiering
before their hard sardonic songs
evolve to atrocity stories



On statues

iron man iron boot
iron glove iron knock

then it's another morning
in the frozen forest
iron gates not required
and fewer men waking
by the felled timber
to an iron echo

those who didn't jostle
close enough the fire
last night or chose not to
some are pointing
like our iron hero
but you'd wonder where

as they're stacked till spring



On midlife

the verandah of your dreams
but how about the perimeter
the shapes in the half-dark
friend or foe

father passed through here
muttering crisis what crisis
became that man we remember
back to the bright lights
face to the sandflies
then came the great leap forward

my take on this
sons and daughter
is that the structure's
at best semi-stable
but light floods in
as well as out
so take as a given
termite energy ghost rot and
try to find time for the skyrockets