INVISIBLE

INVISIBLE

We still fantasize

That someone will find us

Interesting enough

Attractive enough

That we ourselves find

Interesting enough

Attractive enough

To come knocking at our doors

To want to spend time with us

But we are invisible

Just because we’re

Getting older

Does not mean that

There aren’t sad moments when

We still fantasize

But we are invisible

We still have eyes

We still see someone who’s

Interesting looking

Attractive looking

And imagine that we’re

Still quite attractive

Still quite interesting

We might yet still catch an eye

And feature in the odd fantasy

But we are invisible

We may still hope to get a

Furtive glance

From a stranger

Overwhelmed with strangeness

We still fantasize

But we are invisible

Martin A W Holmes, April 2017

FUNNY WHAT MAKES YOU THINK OF THINGS

FUNNY WHAT MAKES YOU THINK OF THINGS

Funny what makes you think of things –

I haven’t thought about this in years

The thick verdant pink

Of the cherry blossom

Still clinging with

Quiet determination

To the springtime trees

Awaiting winds and storms

And a flower petal snowstorm

Funny what makes you think of things –

I haven’t thought about that in years

Funny but it took me right back –

I hadn’t thought about this in years

Inside the garden

Next door but one to ours

And the vast tree

In the very middle

That caused a sudden thick

Deep springtime blizzard

To kick my small shoes through

Funny what makes you think of things –

I haven’t thought about that in years

Funny but I’m standing right there –

I haven’t thought about this in years

In the garden of

Dot and Tom Hayhurst

She used to feed me lunch

In school holidays

When Mum and Dad were at work

Dot fainted once in the kitchen

And I didn’t know quite what to do

Funny what makes you think of things –

I haven’t thought about that in years

Funny what makes you think of things –

I haven’t thought about this in years

Tom used to dress like

Frank Spencer on telly

A beret and a gabardine mac

A radio ham – his huge green shed

Beyond the thickly moulting tree

Had a huge antenna which seemed to reach

Right up to the sky to that younger me

Funny what makes you think of things –

I haven’t thought about that in years

Martin A W Holmes, April 2017

FUNNY WHAT SETS YOU OFF

FUNNY WHAT SETS YOU OFF

Funny what sets you off -

Reading the Chris Packham book

I suddenly found myself fancying

Bird's Eye beefburgers

Chips and frozen peas

Funny what sets you off -

Haven't thought about that in years

Funny what sets you off -

That memory of childhood teas

With a dollop of tomato ketchup

Sold by juvenile

Actors in tank tops

Funny what sets you off -

Haven't thought about that in years

Funny what sets you off –

Comfort food from the dawn of time

I’m fifty-two for God’s sake!

Such a tea would most

Probably kill me

Funny what sets you off -

But I think about that quite a lot

Martin A W Holmes, April 2017

EASTER WEEKEND

‪EASTER WEEKEND

Up on a hill called Calvary‬
‪They nailed a nice chap to a tree‬
‪It all went dark from twelve 'til three‬
‪And a shout about forsaking me...‬

‪The day after is very quiet‬
‪Talking in voices not very loud‬
‪Whilst behind a great big stone‬
‪That nice man lies within a shroud‬

On Sunday the nice man came back to life
With some notion to  save humanity
Using chocolate eggs and bunnies and chicks
And making Monday a Bank Holiday

Martin A W Holmes, April 2017

NORTHERN RAIL HAIKU

A year since it burned
With no information screens
They put these boards up

It's been suggested
That this Northern Rail notice

Might work in haiku...

NORTHERN RAIL HAIKU

We are working hard

At improving your station

Thank you for patience

Please tread carefully

During refurbishment work

We don’t like lawsuits

More information

About your new look station

Will be coming soon

Northern Rail repairs

Eventually coming

To burnt out office

BUNNYWABBIT FABLE

BUNNYWABBIT FABLE

One day, a large group of fluffy bunnywabbits were sitting on a pier, and one of the fluffy bunnywabbits thought of what that particularly wilful young fluffy bunnywabbit thought was a brilliant idea.

The idea was this:

“Wouldn’t it be fun if we all jumped off this pier?” that fluffy bunnywabbit thought.

And so that fluffy bunnywabbit got to talking about it with the other fluffy bunnywabbits, and, after some discussion, it turned out that about a third of the fluffy bunnywabbits thought it was a brilliant idea, another third of the fluffy bunnywabbits thought that it was a terrible idea, and the other third of the fluffy bunnywabbits weren’t really bothered either way.

In the end the fluffy bunnywabbits decided that, because slightly more of the fluffy bunnywabbits DID want to jump off the pier, than either the fluffy bunnywabbits that didn’t want to, or the fluffy bunnywabbits that weren’t really bothered either way, then all of the fluffy bunnywabbits would all have to jump off the pier together.

One thing that all the grown-up fluffy bunnywabbits agreed on, though, was that, whatever the fluffy bunnywabbits decided, the fluffy bunnywabbits would also wake up the baby fluffy bunnywabbits (whose opinion on whether all the fluffy bunnywabbits jumped off this pier or not the grown-up fluffy bunnywabbits felt didn’t matter), and make sure that the baby fluffy bunnywabbits had to jump off the pier with the grown-up fluffy bunnywabbits.

And so all the fluffy bunnywabbits lined up to jump off the pier and it was only as the first fluffy bunnywabbit stood at the very edge of the pier looking at the choppy seas thrashing about so very far below where the fluffy bunnywabbit was standing, that that particular fluffy bunnywabbit began asking itself what it was that the fluffy bunnywabbits that didn’t want to jump off the pier thought that they knew, and what it was that those particular fluffy bunnywabbits had been so concerned about, and maybe, just maybe, the concerns that those fluffy bunnywabbits had might still be worth worrying about after all.

The crowd of fluffy bunnywabbits heard the the fluffy bunnywabbit asking these questions and said that the fluffy bunnywabbit should just shut up and stop thinking about it and then the whole crowd of fluffy bunnywabbits surged forward behind that fluffy bunnywabbit and pushed all of the reluctant fluffy bunnywabbits off the pier with them as they all tumbled off that pier together.

Martin A W Holmes, April 2017

Oh, in case you were wondering, I'm just writing stories about fluffy bunnywabbits... (it was going to be about quackerdoodles until I remembered that they have wings)