GUEST POST // Pull Up My Duvet by Harry Rogers

When nuclear potentiality
Turns into global actuality
There’s no return from our stupidity,
Nor our love affair with cupidity.
Celebrities suddenly discover
How to abuse religiosity,
Embrace prophecies as they recover
From modern fortune driven pomposity.
Priesthoods depicted gods as supermen,
Reversed by uber riche upstart godheads.
World stage creaks with their animosity,
We suffer arrogant hypocrisy.
Gooners gurn in private directors box,
War factory chimneys belch monkey pox,
Pensioners told we must be practical,
Putin threatens nuclear, tactical.
Fuck all their flags and their fucking borders,
Fuck all neo-liberal marauders,
I pull my duvet up over my head,
Today I think, perhaps, I’ll stay in bed.

by HARRY ROGERS
© All rights reserved 2024

phoenix is not at all well

if only you knew what was really going down
then you wouldn’t dismiss me as just a clown
for now all i can do is pretend i don’t care
and continue my awkward dance up the stair
i see you’re confused as a monkey banging gears
what’s with my flat-footing and my crocodile tears
what’s with the daisy pricked through my buttonhole
and why do i snort and gallop like some fool foal
well could it be that i don’t think you deserve to know
that you’re better to zip your lip and watch the show
because if you knew what was really going down
then you’d freak the hell out and honk on out of town

by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024

TATI’s & TONY’s DEAD POET TOUR // The Man by Stephen Crane

 A man said to the universe,
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”

by STEPHEN CRANE (1871-1900)
Public Domain Poetry

blue suede blues

yeah, i really should’ve checked on the weather
because the sky goblins are just not a thing
but it’s said that to go back can be bad luck
if even to grab a forgotten umbrella
once left, one’s house should be stayed away from
so, splish of puddle, meet my blue suede shoes

today, me and my shoes have things to do
firstly, to visit that old bench in the park
it’s been looking drab and lonely recently
and the pigeons poo on it for merry sport
a stimulating rub with keen hands and suds
will bring the hardwood back to its former glory

secondly, to treat old man river to coffee
with a shot of brandy made piping hot
it’s been looking sluggish and tired recently
so, me and my shoes with a flask, bottoms up
shall give a golden shower for the ages
over the truculent swans, honking, aggrieved

and finally, to hug that weeping willow
grimly wilting in silence out there on the bank
me and my shoes with clumsy handmade scarf
with playful breath control will swaddle her nape
until the chlorophyll leaves the leaves on high
to fill the night sky with a new constellation

and postscript will find me in that same evening
placing upon porch my hopelessly damaged shoes
could they be an offering to the sky goblins
we all know they’re blue suede footwear fetishists
so, anything’s possible, is it rather not
and, hopefully, tomorrow there will be no rain

by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024

the reassembled life

so glad my world is crumbling
‘cos i really want to start again
i won’t try to hold the pieces
and rebuild the walls in vain

things can never be right again
but i can weave a flaxen path
i won’t pack my travelling bag
with either despair or wrath

i’ll thaw my hands o’er new hearth
’til i emanate a renewed hope
i won’t let them claw me into
their inhuman brutal death lope

by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024