‘Le Jouet‘ is a 1976 French film directed by Francis Veber, and I thoroughly recommend you check it out. It’s about a boy who buys a man to be his new toy. I found it an engaging exploration of how basic respect for people should always be more important than money. That’s a message we surely need right now.
by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2026
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
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
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
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
unbolt me 