Tuesday, 16 July 2019
STUMP
she is outside again
with her plastic watering can,
watering the stump.
I've told her
any number of times
that the tree is dead,
that stumps don't grow
but still she is outside,
her smile like a rainbow,
and she tells me
that without the rain
we'll never know.
Thursday, 11 July 2019
Tuesday, 2 July 2019
NEW POEM - 'MONKEY OFF MY BACK'
This poem sadly didn't make the cut for my latest, forthcoming book (Jan 2020). However, it is a catchy performance piece about, well, anxiety, and I thought it deserves a bit of an airing. So here goes. Enjoy!
MONKEY OFF MY BACK
MONKEY OFF MY BACK
Monkey off my back!
Monkey off my back!
Gotta get the
Gotta get the
Monkey off my back!
No matter where I try to go
the monkey comes with me.
He wraps his legs around me
like he's hanging from a tree.
He throws things at my teachers
and he bellows at my friends.
I need to make him go away!
I need to make amends.
Monkey off my back!
Monkey off my back!
Gotta get the
Gotta get the
Monkey off my back!
The monkey shares a bed with me,
he has his own pyjamas.
He makes my bedroom dirty
with the skins of old bananas.
My parents kicked me out the house,
the monkey made them cross.
I’m desperate to get rid of him,
he needs to know who’s boss.
Monkey off my back!
Monkey off my back!
Gotta get the
Gotta get the
Monkey off my back!
The monkey’s getting cumbersome.
He’s really quite a weight!
He’s hairy and he’s smelly
and he makes me feel irate.
He doesn’t even let up
when I’m sitting on the loo.
My heart feels like a jungle
and my head feels like a zoo!
Monkey off my back!
Monkey off my back!
Gotta get the
Gotta get the
MONKEY OFF MY BACK!
Monday, 1 July 2019
FAMILY TREE
In the autumn we take a trip
to visit my grandma’s favourite tree.
“It’s been there ever since I was
a little girl” she says.
Her tree is alone in the middle of a field
by the side of the road we always drive down
every time we come around
on our journey up from London.
Its once green leaves now crusty brown
with skeleton branches poking through,
its trunk stands firm and tall and proud
in the face of the changing seasons.
In the autumn we take a trip
to visit my grandma’s favourite tree.
It is not dead, though it seems to be;
it knows that summer will come again.
it knows that summer will come again.
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