Snakehill
We grind keys on sandstone sacraments
(names dates loves and was eres)
Territorially recorded, awaiting time’s erosion
Through nights and days this hide away
For anyone escaping
Something
Dates far back
We find a rock dated 1952
Arrow piercing heart
Archaic symbols
Solidify its truth
As I scrape is a cock
After Ste’s fresh ground name
I survey the open kingdom
And wish that home was this
Mundane
4 generations
A hundred years ago today
My great grandfather was born
A man who could carry telegraph poles
On his shoulder
To cut up
For the fire
Then he gave birth to my grandad
A man who wore a ring on his little finger
That my dad pulls out
And shows me how
It’s too big
For even his thumb
Then my old man is a man of stories
His mates tell me down the pub
The best right hook
You’ve ever seen
Knock anyman down
In one punch
And I sit at home
With a cup of tea writing
About their past glories
Cos’ manliness
Is no longer
Rewarded
The Estate
In placid light
Eyes see cars in Slumber
Cats prowl discretely
Hiding in Cold Crevices and Shadows
The dull yellow glow
Lighting estates of lucid delirium
Pristine lawns advocate 9 to 5
Nice families’ search for Suburbia
Whilst unused items lay in Gardens discarded
Next to caravans with boarded windows
Half-filled scrap-van is dormant at no.32
Too old for a gallop, to Skip tomorrow it’ll canter
In this mute, still dark
A silhouette looms
A figure built for power and strength
Its muscles twitch as it moves
Its hooves chik-chik as it walks
It echoes every step
Like kettle steam jets, its breath is seen
By only the cob itself
Quarantine snuffs and huffles
Allergic to the fight for the light
It leaves its marks in the snow
For wonder tow encapsulate the mystic being
Oblivious to what creature has left them
Or where it might be going
Jim Gibson grew up in the feral plains of an ex-mining village, Newstead, in the shadow of Lord Byron’s grandeur, this juxtaposition may have been what started him on his literary path. Currently the fiction editor for Hand Job Magazine, he tries to encourage the lesser voiced truths of our society.
April 28, 2017 at 2:22 pm
Good stuff Jim. Particularly like the first 2. 2nd one is my favourite. Sounds like my lot.
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