Category Archives: POEMS

melancholia

if his head touched the pillow he would have died
so he wrote instead but there was no tune
no tune to croon for the words he made
“looks make the fellow,” some looker cried
so he hid instead but there was no room
no room to prune for the life he made

years rolled into the tomb
& he smiled a bloodless smile
“better shut me that window,” he said
then wrote some more
but what for

if he skipped on the bellows he would have flied
but he sunk instead & there was no room
no room to swoon for the lull he made
“taste life’s harsh marrow,” some taster cried
so he starved instead & there was no tune
no room to croon for the lack he made

laughter rolled into the tomb
& he smiled a bloodless smile
“joy’s an abstraction,” he said
then cried some more
but what for

if he plunked on a cello he would have sighed
but he frowned instead & there was no room
for croons to tune with the face he made
“hang on these gallows,” some hanger cried
so he did just that & there was no noon
just gloom in the room & the life he paid

death rolled into the tomb
& he smiled a bloodless smile
“where’ve you been all my life,” he said
then hung some more
but what for

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2008

stillbirth

when stars tore themselves from the sky
impregnated earth unto ruin
a city groaned in labour of blooms
orcs then stormed her depleted womb

& the bodies they left behind
of these there were far too many
yes, i remember bucha
but you still call it zachistka

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2026

a faraway shore

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

a collapsed star

i was the sun made incarnate
& it was there that i did opine
pearls dripping with red wine
wisdom for the ages
but do you remember now
how you’d demanded this of me
if i was to earn your love
then i would first need to burn

the day you took my hand
entangled it in your bracken blest
i knew i wanted forever like this

when i was klept in awe of you
when sang you into my clenched fist
when the deafness of your devotion
enkindled my blindness
each bluff was rendered null & void
& every dot became a star
then from between your thighs
an akeldama enflamed the earth

the day you stole this land
entangled me in your bracken blest
i knew i needed forever like this

but then you spurned me
forsook the lifeblood of us
it had taken two to tango
& three to dare enshroud
four became a muffled roar
five fingers pressed to make a fist
of shared remonstrations

the day you withdrew my hand
untangled it from your bracken blest
i knew forever would end like this

so i guttered & then i waned
darkness fell across the earth

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2025

TATI’s & TONY’s DEAD POET TOUR // The Poet Care by Victor James Daley

Care is a Poet fine:
He works in shade or shine,
And leaves, you know his sign!
No day without its line.

He writes with iron pen
Upon the brows of men;
Faint lines at first, and then
He scores them in again.

His touch at first is light
On Beauty’s brow of white;
The old churl loves to write
On foreheads broad and bright.

A line for young love crossed,
A line for fair hopes lost
In an untimely frost,
A line that means Thou Wast.

Then deeper script appears:
The furrows of dim fears,
The traces of old tears,
The tide-marks of the years.

To him with sight made strong
By suffering and wrong,
The brows of all the throng
Are eloquent with song.

by VICTOR JAMES DALEY (1858-1905)
Public Domain Poetry