do you think of me
walking past that ferris wheel
in the desert dark
long after the meadowlark
has left for songs yonder rue
do you think of me
standing on that worn jetty
a faraway face
framed within lost time & space
on abstracted rueful sands
do you think of me
hearing the song of the sea
near that ferris wheel
in a desert shell to heal
from rue the day we parted
by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024
today our god smoked a lot
just look at those heavy clouds
then he took a massive piss
for nine hundred sixty hours
noah chopped huge planks of wood
did it with his chopping fist
slapped together a wee boat
before the waters could rise
the re’em poked its nose inside
but noah shooed it away
It was crowded & stuffy
re’ems were bigger than blue whales
upset, the re’em craned its neck
& pricked god’s arse with its horn
upset, god smote the re’em back
right up its almighty crack
then the firmament crackled
& the waters subsided
like gurgling down a drain hole
along with the re’em’s remains
noah’s wee boat went aground
atop a big arse mountain
creatures piled out & ran off
scattering every which way
noah then got himself drunk
pitched a tent, slept in the buff
put one son in a tizzy
the others covered his bits
happily ever after
multiply & fill the earth
venerate or freaking else
these our smoking god decreed
as a sign of his good grace
covenant with man & beast
a rainbow was set in clouds
then the gays came & stole it
by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024
don’t light a cigarette
in a house of oily rags
if you do, be ready to
extinguish your reeky buns
‘cos methane doesn’t come
only from cross volcanoes
& farting has never been
an insured accident
so, eat way less baked beans
if you really want to live
or better, just stop smoking
go on a jet ski trip instead
by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024
we are born
empty phials for memories
accumulated & preserved
for all time
drop by drop
warm & cold, sweet & bitter
laughter in sorrow & love
fumblers of rhyme
leaving’s never easy
but look, there, the stars
hopeful like our dreams
shade by shade
a unicorn’s funerary wreath
a pallbearer’s rainbow raiment
all is sublime
& then we die
caulked in eternity boxes
blest in rot for posterity
our burial heim
leaving’s never easy
but look, there, the stars
hopeful like our dreams
by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2025
your voice echoes back from yesteryear
as i perch on the edge of hope & fear
once more there’s this pang of you not here
the sun leers through cloud’s shame above
upon grounded white crow & black dove
whose answer for the wrong question needs love
tar soap scent atween the birches
your shadow no longer afore me
just othering eyes from briar to fens
your hand reaches through the fullness of time
untold happenstance of future clime
dusts sensate shoulder with earthly rhyme
it signals to turn that withered page
to uncloy myself from ferocity’s cage
release sweet sadness & fathomless rage
tar soap scent atween the birches
your shadow no longer afore me
just othering eyes from briar to fens
now & again when i turn to look back
i still see you not here & your hand’s slack
still you’re part of me on this doomen track
in these memories of you i abide
what remains of you the urn at my side
with no hope of turning time’s avian tide
tar soap scent atween the birches
your shadow no longer afore me
just othering eyes from briar to fens
by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024
unbolt me 