Been interviewing friends
About their cheese steak preferences
These super fat meat bombs
Always look better than they taste
Still it’s hard to resist
The carnivore lust
Slam it down with a few beers
Then the best nap ever
Priceless
This is the creeping of the morning through the curtains
The violence of the shake that wakes an over-tired brain
This is the rumble of the traffic
The regret of a purchase of a two bed on an A road
The same road I walk home, night shift diminished
All the cracks in the pavement seem a little too perfect
I’ve started to wonder if cognisance is worthless
If thoughts decorate brains like flowers in hearses
The church sits on the skyline
At the point where the rainclouds and the sun combine
I’ve thrown my voice at answers, let mistrust go
But I can’t help but argue with the echoes
You see the back of my head as you leave your home
You don’t need to see my face, you already know
My jagged outline so over-traced
That all the mystery has worn away
So you don’t even open your mouth
You watch my pull my hood up and fix my head down
My bad posture comes from my heavy eyes
They weigh more than I can carry
This is the creeping of the volume on your iPod
As crudely shuffled songs end up sitting all wrong
But louder feels better, it drowns out the flaws
Hides the pity in the meanings that don’t mean a thing anymore
I’ve been meaning to work harder, but my quota goes unmet
Just like the new friends your ex wrote of in the letters he sent
I’ve started to wonder if I’d save the trust I spent
Would I be able to afford some of the truth you have to rent?
The bank hangs like a blanket over a cage
At the point where the cold rain seeps into the drains
I’ve sold myself on a promise, let greed take control
These days ignorance is solvency or so I’m told
You see a flick book of red lights with one dog-eared page
So sick of being exactly twenty minutes late every day
As your clockwork heart just keeps losing time
And it thins your blood like red wine
That always made me such a dizzy drunk
I don’t regret the day I finally sobered up
I’ve never been to Pakistan
The vapor wafting out of the food truck
Reminded me of another life
I stood in the industrial zone
Inhaling the culture of a foreign land
Should have gotten some
I’ll go back soon
When I need a fix
Gave me a good feeling
A calling of sorts
Mysterious yearnings
Wrapped around grilled pita and hot sauce
Those who said broken glass cannot be rejoined
Were weaklings
Yes weaklings
The strong are the ones who not only rejoined
Disjointed glass
But also disjointed lives
I am the epitome of the women
who can not only bear
breaking, tearing and shattering
But also resist
I am not going to stick
My beautiful life
You tore into pieces
With watery glue sold in
Mainstream markets
I am going to burn and remold
My life, you, young man could
Only tear
With your weak manly fingers
Into a stronger, harder shape
I am the phoenix
That withstands fire
I will burn and remold
But will never be destroyed
I will resurrect from my own ashes
You who can only tear
Are a mere pawn on the chess board
Nothing to a woman-phoenix
Who withstands fire,
Fire mighty enough to scorch
The world you stand
Another sun
Brings another day
But the day before
Has not at all begun
No one ever nears the End
And another sun
May mean another day
But everything before
Has not just washed away
The banks of memory
Store and hold
A merciless monster,
Big and bold
Chilling your heart,
Making it cold
Memories
Untold
Early morning
Before the dawn
Neither of us a good sleeper
Dog prowling around
Giving pause to touch
Nothing frantic
Just a caress or two
Maybe go butt to butt
She’s small
I’m tall
Erotic on the perimeter of marriage
Rising, time to walk the dog
Just outside the top end of the city
lays a long, woodland pathway.
It used to be a railway line,
once upon a time
all the metal tracks,
wooden sleepers and stones
are long gone now
yet they left the old workmen’s
house brick huts
-dotted here and there-
still standing, amongst the foliage.
Homeless folk who sleep in clearings
amongst the trees in the summer
use them to hide from the rain.
There is even a 20ft apple tree
growing by the side of one of them
(Free food and vitamin C)
People walk their dogs along this path
and halfway along it joins the river
and continues to then run along side it.
The branches have joined overhead
and in some sections it is just like
walking through a tunnel of trees.
There are rabbits, foxes, owls, buzzards
and all manner of other wildlife to be seen.
It is beautifully peaceful, tranquil
and a tonic for the soul, I believe.
A five minute walk the other way
is the anxious madness of crowded people,
herds of headaches and hangovers,
the traffic and mayhem of fast clocks,
rush, panic and late appointments.
Whilst here I have nothing but time
to reflect gentle and happily ponder
as I watch and observe a Grey Heron
below fishing patiently the waters edge.
More at http://paultristram.blogspot.co.uk/.