if a deaf guy falls in the forest
& no one’s around to hear it
does he make a sound
probably
he just can’t hear himself
or maybe can’t use his words
like ouch or christ
by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024
if a deaf guy falls in the forest
& no one’s around to hear it
does he make a sound
probably
he just can’t hear himself
or maybe can’t use his words
like ouch or christ
by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024
i won me a lollipop at the fair
a golden horsey with a wee eyesore
well, a grain of sugar what hadn’t melt
this blemishment gave me ma a scare
“lick it not, wee lassie!” she did implore
“’tis an evil eye what from hell-ter skelt!”
while me ma looked prayful at the sky
fumbled an’ mumbled, fair crossin’ herself
i stole me a wee tentative lick
well, ain’t nothin’ happened by the by
no lurgy, no hauntin’ nor broken shelf
no double whammy or triple kick
ma an’ me did ‘tinue ’round the grounds
buyed us eggs (three pennies a dozen)
hid our nyloned legs up on the ferris wheel
i licked an’ i sucked, slurpin’ wee rounds
sugar rushin’ gave me head a wee buzzin’
ma’s “let us hie home!” took on fresh appeal
by the time ma an’ me met pa at the stoop
naught but a stick were gummed to me palm
an’ me tummy were turgin’ somethin’ fierce
then there, the bridle, like an empty loop
fell from pa’s hand to mountin’ alarm
an’ news of ol’ clyde to sadden the ears
i cried at dinner and all through the night
at thought of our nag’s life all melt away
while i tongued in the sun, too much to bear
i were scold by me ma though real contrite
no lollipops for me the rest of me days
and animal crackers i’d ought beware
by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2023
it’s alright, it’s okay
you can lay me down now
in that circle poised for decay
or maybe tomorrow
or maybe back then
hell knows when
it’ll always be too soon
to attend such sadness but
it’s alright & it’s okay anyway
i need only as long as i get
& maybe moments more
for my life to matter
for to fill it with you
& the scenes we’ll ne’er keep
when our play is done
it’ll always be too soon
for such sadness to mend but
it’s alright to live & die anyway
you pay your debts with pain
then seek a new currency
& nurse that barb wire heart
but ask what joy would do
even when i’m gone
see, it’s alright, it’s okay
it’ll always be too soon
to pen such sadness but
it’s alright & got a poem anyway
by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024
You can find TROTTERSVILLE #1 here > Ba Dum Tish!
by TONY SINGLE & TETIANA ALEKSINA
© All rights reserved 2024
a sound with the force of cotton on skin
the sigh of a newborn sprout leaving its seed
fish tail swishing beneath the crescent waters
hush, careless hunter
you’re the thorny crown of evolution
creeping between the boughs in tuonela
shod with the intemperance of steel
girded by the rapacity of gold
leaden with the dullness of expectation
hush, warless hunter
your former life lays in smithereens
far from the sun in the lap of louhi
and you’re doomed to ghost in the shadows
until the end of days or ebb’s white never
ears leery to the thrum of nature’s quiet demise
by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2023