Waving Goodbye

(with apologies to Hal David & Burt Bacharach)

Trains and boats and planes

and cars and buses

and bikes and bodies

and buildings and bridges

and roads and railways

and fields and fences

and dreams and livelihoods…

swept away under the rising sun

like unwanted toys

in its wake.

John H Davies

12th March 2011 

Retrospective

It is a profoundly irritating fact

that life will never seem as bad

as it does right now

when now has passed,

and continued onto then;

from then to on and on, and so on.

For looking back from now to then,

then won’t seem as bad

as it did back then, and as a consequence

we are able to face then again

and that is what makes us carry on

and on and so on.

John H Davies

11th March 2011 

Bragging about our Dads (III)

My dad’s a policeman. He’s got a helmet

and truncheon in the attic, and he’ll come

and arrest you if I ask him to. I’ve only

to say the word – but not on a Sunday, 

because they’ve cut his overtime and 

bonus payments, and he says it isn’t 

worth it, what with everything so expensive.

He might as well take the redundancy 

and do that world trip he’s been promising

himself before the pension kicks in. 

There’s no justice any more.

John H Davies

10th March 2011

Resurrection

The late and unexpected frost

flattened the newly emerging daffodils

as if a helicopter had dropped

into a low hover above the garden.

But by midday they had revived

in the spring sunshine like the risen Christ,

as if they had only been playing dead.

John H Davies

9th March 2011 

Gas Explosion IV

This is the girl all tattered and torn,

that was burned by the gas

that came from the pipe

that was fractured by concrete

that was put where it shouldn’t

that exacerbated another problem

that had gone undetected since the 30’s

that ended in the leak

that blew up the house

that Jack (or someone like him) built.

John H Davies

8th March 2011 

Rationing

My grandmother would butter

the end of the loaf before

slicing a wafer thin layer

with the greatest of care.

My mother spread great

wodges of margarine on a 

white slice from a plastic

packet of identical pieces.

My wife tends to avoid
too much bread  and butter
as we suspect we might be

gluten and lactose intolerant. 

John H Davies

7th March 2011 

Time Warp

Lying in bed enjoying a Saturday morning

view of the Wrekin, we received a text

from a friend who’d just been mugged

in Nairobi. An experienced traveller, he knew

the risks; took all the precautions, but he

wouldn’t be eager to leave the hotel again.

Two minutes later, my daughter phoned

in tears. Her car had been broken into

during the night. It occurred to me

they’d made very good speed to get

all the way to Shrewsbury in so short a time.

Just for a camera, a stereo and some old CDs.

John H Davies

6th March 2011