CROCODILE

daughter to the water
i hold her hand
crawled onto land
but didnt like it
floating weightless
in the cool green glassy sheen
and here i wait just
lying poised and latent
coiled spring finger wiggling on a hair trigger
braced and bursting
immersed but desperately thirsty
to inflict the worst curse irreversibly
on a zebra
or antelope
consumed with hope
unseen beneath this serene green glassy sheen

yeah thats it
floating here till prey appears
eyes full of deceitful tears
or ——–
maybe i am crying real tears
and never noticed it
but what would i have
to be ashamed of
?

then you arrive
ears twitching
as you dip in to sip the still water
your lip making ripples
your toes in the mud
and - thinking everything is fine -
you slip across that line
flick a switch inside my mind
and without an ounce of strength left in reserve
i strike

our bodies collide

sink my teeth into your hide

taste whats inside

and its true that id

give anything just to live in this moment —————–

and perhaps i do

………….
………..
……..
now
i drag you down
and down
and down
where you are mute and glassy-eyed
mouth open wide
in the ancient aquatic space
the amniotic embrace
the undeniable place
of your beginning

**********************************************************

3 ANIMALS

Alighting on a leaf,
delightfully brief
and bashful,
the brilliant butterfly
quickly whispered
a few words
as the lizard listened,
and then fluttered by.

The quick and twitching
cold-blooded lizard
licked his lips,
lay on his long branch
and thought
of ice-cream and cakes
lakes of lemonade
and heaps of pizzas
made with his favourite toppings.
Then he rolled and lolled
on the old bark,
hollering and barking
to the bright, shiny
black beetle
who he could see
had clung ungainly
to the trunk of the tree.
‘Ho ho ho!
Woof woof woof!
A fine-dining feast that features
food enough for all the jungle creatures
tonight, tonight!
yum yum!’

But as the beetle gnawed and clawed,
boring its way into
the ancient tree-trunk wood,
he knew he’d sooner chew
his way to the very root
consume every bud and shoot
of this thick and humid forest
before he’d consume the food
that butterflies and lizards ate
off all the fine-china dining plates
that they were promised.

*******************************************

BUTTERFLY

A caterpillar crawled along its branch
chewed on many a leaf, and soon
had wrapped itself, thread by thread
in a silky, soft, suspended cocoon.

Then days passed
and nights passed
and at long last
a brand new butterfly unrolled
its big bright wings of quivering gold.

And the butterfly, he wanted to say something about loss
and absence
and how he hated these crisp, clean brilliant wings of gold,
but he could only fly
and flutter and sing
the sweet song of his papery wings,
and look
like the essence
of blessed beauty.

*************************************************

BIT ABOUT LIGHTNING FOR CLARE

Thunder is thundering high up in the sky rumbling
“oh why?, oh why?” that dumb paternal mumbling

It’s atavistic dull-grey bellyaching is frightening
all cold hard spittle, punctuated by lightning

It’s no fair! You’re scared! Wet hair, you’re there shivering,
in the violent lightning, in the car silently quivering.

No joke I wrote this for you, specially made it
because I heard you talking ’bout lightning and how much you hate it.

*********************************************

THE TOAD COULDN’T CROAK

In the tangle of trees
where the languid summer breeze
gently blew the buzzing bees
from flower to flower
for hour after slow and sleepy hour,

where the softly spilling sunlight splashed
and dripped in bright pools and flickering dances
beneath the thick and twisted branches
in the knotted mats of grass and plants,
somewhere among the thousand million billion
little holes and corners of this enormous swamp
there lived a toad.

Oh, this little leathery toad he loved to croak
and burp a boozy toneless tune with all the other blokes.
So as he sat sedately in the springtime sun,
he cleared his throat
and puffed it up into a bubble
to hit the perfect note -

but somehow all that issued
from the taught and twitching tissue
was silence.
Silence!

He couldn’t pierce the hissing insect sussuration
with even the smallest croak,
he just stuttered and he choked,
oh it seemed his voice was broke :(
And now, nought but bug-infested silence
swelling and swarming inside his tiny little ears.

The toad, he jumped and stamped
and clapped his hands
in a made frustrated dance,
but all that you could have heard
was the sound of his feet in the dry grass
the whispers of his folding skin
and the quiet crush of his tiny frame
collapsing in the dust.

one by one,
wink by wink,
blink and twinkle,
out came the stars
scattered in the dark
filling the vast volume of void
with their anarchic chatterings of light
so sleepy eyed,
the toad
touched the trail of a trembling tear
that trickled down his cheek.
All around he heard the sound
rising from the grass and stagnant ponds
the clamor of croaking toads and raucous frogs.
Burp burp burp!
For hours he had tried and tried,
puffed himself up, all bug-eyed
and limbs flailing
but always failing.
Burp burp burp! went the night-time chorus.

And in all the faces he would ever meet,
he would find no comprehension
but the little toad, he wiped his tear and smiled
the smile of a prison escapee
looking back from beyond the wire
as he lay in the dust.

3 ANIMALS

Alighting on a leaf,
delightfully brief
and bashful,
the brilliant butterfly
quickly whispered
for a minute
as the lizard listened,
and then fluttered by.

The quick and twitching
cold-blooded lizard
licked his lips,
lay on his long branch
and thought of ice-cream and cakes
lakes of lemonade
and heaps of pizzas
made with his favourite toppings.
Then he rolled and lolled
on the old bark,
hollering and barking
to the bright, shiny black beetle
who he could see
had clung ungainly
to the trunk of the tree.
“Ho ho ho!
Woof woof woof!
A fine-dining feast that features
food enough for all the jungle creatures
tonight, tonight!
yum yum!”

But as the beetle gnawed and clawed,
boring its way into
the ancient tree-trunk wood,
he knew he’d sooner chew
his way to the very root
consume every bud and shoot
of this thick and humid forest
before he’d consume the food
that butterflies and lizards ate
off all the fine-china dining plates
that they were promised.