Obesity Advice

Part of her clinical role

was to advise people of the dangers

of being overweight,

but she wasn’t allowed to call them fat

for fear of hurting their feelings.

John H Davies

5th March 2011 

Apart

The moment we’re apart

I’m missing you

Familiar you.

No sooner have you left

I am bereft

And at a loss

It seems there is a cross

That I must bear

And if I dare

To take a breath and wait,

I’ll count my loss

To be a gain

For when I see your eyes

I’ll recognise

Familiar you.

John H Davies

4th March 2011

Signs

It might be a slight movement

at the corner of an eye;

an involuntary twitch of the leg,

or a difference of

two barely discernible shades

of skin tone that betray

or admit,

or silently proclaim -

like a bell without a clapper,

or rebuke -

like the mute strike of a rifle shot

upon its target

before the deafening report.

John H Davies

3rd March 2011 

Note To Myself

Just to let you know,

I won’t be answering the phone today.

Nor will I wind the clocks

or check my emails.

I’ll allow another day’s facial growth

and use yesterday’s socks and boxers.

I won’t be cooking a meal,

might boil an egg at best.

The post box won’t get emptied

and I won’t put out the bins.

I won’t brush teeth, shower

or buy the Sunday papers.

The TV will stay on standby.

The hanging baskets will have to wait

till tomorrow. But I will feed the dog,

and the bloody goldfish.

I won’t sort the recycling

or put on a load of washing.

I definitely won’t reconcile bank statements

or think about work tomorrow.

Depressed? Not a bit of it. Today

I am in control of my life, and I

won’t finish this poem to prove it.

John H Davies

2nd March 2011

Viral Transport

From the darkened room,

looking into the scene,

I drifted along 

the whirr of the projector

and through the screen

across the void of a hundred miles

onto a grey London pavement

rebounding raindrops

and footfalls of strangers

hurrying across the frame

with umbrellas, avoiding

a passing bus as it ploughed

through a puddle.

And from my cocoon

the image offered

a strange comfort

that would linger within me

like herpes.

John H Davies

1st March 2011 

Absence

Despite the time apart and the anticipation

of seeing her again; the cleaning and tidying;

clipping the dog, and cooking her favourite meal,

she was disappointed that nothing had changed,

and that the hopes of how things might be, 

or even ought to be, in her mind, were that much

further from reality. And this reluctant understanding

didn’t make her feel any better.

John H Davies

28th February 2011 

Dilapidations

You came with me on the last day

and wiped down window sills

and skirting boards with a fresh smelling

all purpose cleaner, and I filled the odd hole

in the wall and cleaned the toilets

and swept the workshop floor ready

to hand back to the landlord.

And before we left, we stood in the empty

space and you held me like you do,

and I knew that the next step

would be even better than the last.

John H Davies

27th February 2011