Simon Timbrell-West

The Playground

Sit there and swing

and enjoy the movement

back and forth

back and forth

through past and present

\belonging to neither

Saying Goodbye to the Decade

My eyes will chase you

across the water

until you fall into the horizon

and your image drowns

in saline blue

Then I’ll hear you

somewhere on the fringes

of my imagination

like the echo of an echo

of an echo……..

that’s touched every yesterday

that wants to touch

every tomorrow

but knows that it’s slowly dying

And I’ll recall a million times

that cancerous cluster of letters

spoken so matter-of-factly

that destroyed everything

and nothing

in one staccato breath

that laid to rest my youth

I know I can do it

I just hope I can do it

Morning

At last the sun rises

like an arthritic giraffe that’s overindulged

the night before

and woken with a sore head

looming unsteadily over civilisation

fragile, majestic – almost too beautiful

to belong.

Yesterday I mourned its death

but today I curse its resurrection wishing that

consequences were rooted under the canopy of sleep

and that love can breathe beyond the safety

of history.

Nervously, I kiss your mouth

the sacred vessel of what excites me

longing, hoping, yearning

that your veins hold more than desire

that your veins hold more than love

At last your eyes open

and you prove again what a fool I am.

Granddad

I stand tall; a tree

Neither you, nor anyone can remember me

My family once grew all around

Now I stand alone on barren ground

I’ve provided a shelter from many a storm

But now my roots are twisted and torn

Each year brings another ring

And as my life moves on death keeps creeping in

But I don’t fear death, only future years

God spare me from tomorrow’s tears

Chop me down. Please make haste

I live my youth again in some other place

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 Simon Timbrell-West