Traces

Evolve me,

and I will turn from the sun

and claim the void.

One thought to vent

the sulphurous residue

of late flowering

maturity.

Retreat me,

and see the shadow

creep across unequal surfaces

and stall to time.

John H Davies

4th June 2011 

Mortality

The keyhole surgery

was a success and his

fears that they might

find something sinister

besides his gall bladder

were unfounded, but

despite this and his

obvious post operative

fatigue he couldn’t sleep

because each time he

closed his eyes he felt

like he was going to die.

John H Davies

3rd June 2011

E.Coli in salad - a scientific view

Lettuce, tomato or cucumber?

Hard to tell which is the culprit.

Though judging from the public

reaction it seems to be nothing

more than a matter of taste.

John H Davies

2nd June 2011 

Ships In The Night

I called again,

but he was away from his desk.

I’d called this morning

only to be told

he hadn’t come in yet,

and when I called at lunch time,

he was at lunch.

So as sure

as there is a law

somewhere on the statute book,

drafted by a man

of Irish ancestry,

when he calls back, I’ll be

on the other line.

John H Davies

1st June 2011 

Parting

I used to part my hair to the left,

I’m not sure why, it didn’t naturally fall

in one direction or the other;

it was simply one of those decisions

you had to make as a boy, and I think

mine was based on a straw pole

which revealed that most people’s

partings were on the other side.

And I never gave it a second thought,

and hardly ever looked in the mirror

until the winds of change blew about us

and you suggested I parted my hair

the other way, and said you preferred it.

And for once I checked my reflection,

still familiar but now inverted,

and saw how I must appear to you.

John H Davies

31st May 2011 

Sketch by John Wheatley 1916

I’ll leave your picture up

until the very last moment,

because it helps me to think

of you struggling to make 

sense of the changing world,

and the pursuit of that elusive

other self. For sharing your

hardship brings us closer,

even though I have added

almost ten years to the moment

you made your lucky escape.

John H Davies

30th May 2011

Tony Boyle

I felt you there today,

Your reassuring presence at my shoulder.

I followed the path that you had trod

A year before, and now a little older

I’m still wandering in the aftermath

Of your departure.

You left us unprepared.

No timely warning that you planned to go.

And yet in truth

Those years that you bestowed

In wisdom kind

Will bear us safely down our onward road.

I felt you there today,

On a breath of warm Italian wind,

And I knew that all was well.

John H Davies

29th May 2011