Poisson D'avril

STORY LINK

Once again the first of April

That tricky day we get each year

Where the prankster on the warpath

A catch you napping racketeer

This year in particular

Be on the lookout more aware

The April jape will mouth agape

Trap you in a foolish snare

You may believe your worldly

Been more than once around the block

That you’re the sort who can’t be caught

The wisest black sheep in the flock

Watch out for memes and bloody schemes

Where unbelievably you rage

Retweeting myths from troll-like gifs

Who send you screaming off the page

So watch out for the off-guard piece

Designed to show you up less cool

Quoting stuff a blatant bluff

To leave you clearly April’s Fool

Q. Who was the first April Fool of biblical proportions?

A. Adam, when he was ribbed by God while sleeping.

Action Situations

Ten days in and wondering

Feeling distanced on the road

Getting back to home again 

Unpack the shopping load

Everything around us

Waits for other things not done

We keep some back ‘til later

To improve our sense of fun

What time shall we get out again

To walk our muscles in light airs

Crossing roads and deviating

Separating us from theirs

The friendly sight of hearth and home

A couple of hours before TV

Stepping out of clothes for staying in

Hang them up and then do tea

Do some writing read a book

Revise tomorrow’s shopping list

Phone a friend talk let’s pretend

To show somehow we still exist

NOTICE: To All Prisoners

In these strange hiatus days

All our gatherings on hold

You can’t do this 

and don’t do that

You must do what your told

Scrubbed your hands to super clean

Your taps and handles shining

Wash your tables 

floors and worktops

But still no silver lining

Exercise by all means do

Get some shopping if you can

And if you can’t 

then phone a friend

Hitch a list on your chum’s plan

If you find that doing nothing

Is the worst thing you can’t do

DIY won’t spur you on

Try writing rhyme 

like this one too

It matters not 

what strikes your light

Or what stimulates your brain

Avoid those modes of bugger all

Like staring at that window plain

No one can live a life for you

But loads of folks

can lend a hand

Get on a helpline have a chat

They’re waiting there 

to understand

Lets's Move On

Clocks may end up slow to start

With today behind the times

Sunday finds you late in bed

Tiredly counting church bell chimes

Movement hints of some activity

Sluggish out of kilter voices

Far too early as you check your watch

Not seeing now has meagre choices

When you discover what you didn’t do

On closing down your Saturday night

Moving forward those devices

That kept your real time out of sight

Told As Seen

Worn out words on paper scraps

Scribbled notes on weak ideas

Listless links in blotted inks

Patterned circular like spheres

Potentials struggle to the fore

There subtle messages ignored

As if the sight of inspiration

Hides in shadows unexplored

Chains of phrases rattle by

Old and tired they drily pass

Parched in reservoirs laid low

Idle stains on unwashed glass

Dreary Days and Tedious Times

Among the steps where freedom walks

Along the road we took for granted

No longer in our groups well met

Back home inside we’re planted

Something’s stalking somewhere near

Seeks a place to make a home

A fly-by flitting pestilence

Where the warm unguarded roam

Hand to mouth will hitch a ride

Unless drowned in scrubbing soap

Expelled to catch a passing eye

Or where the grubby grimy grope

So keep away unclean we say

At least a distance of two metres

No shaking hands air kiss demands

Or touchy feel repeaters

Homeward Sound

I’m slipping into silence 

On a seam of drifting air

To leave my anger in another place

To overcome that deep despair

With time to be and sitting free

Reading writing learning

To leave distraction in another place

And conquer futile yearning

In two places here and now

Preparing for the silent keep

To leave disquiet in another place

Swim on the lighter side of deep

STORY LINK

Friday is Temporarily Suspended

Do you remember Fridays

Those vivid days we shared together

In loopy groups with cheery whoops

Before the day became ‘Whatever!’

Down the pub and chomp some grub

A little while to shine your smile

Laughing joking stress releasing

Putting on your Friday style

Well don’t give in to giving up

Take time out to plan what’s next

Just pretend each day is Thursday

For when next Friday reconnects 

Handy Tips

Happy birthday to you

Wash hands well

Front and back

In between the fingers

Don't miss out 

On both thumbs two

Where lots of

Transfer lingers

Soap or sanitizer

Twenty seconds clean

First sanitize the mobile

Before you touch that filthy screen

Remote TV and joysticks

Keyboards touchpads consoles

Flushing levers doorknobs

Sterilize where muck patrols

What can we do in honesty

Grime and slime is rife

No sooner do we clean that smear

Another bug invades our life

So cleaning hands from hereon in

Will be our number one must do

There are no hands clean shortcuts

It's all the same for me and you

LINK TO: NHS Corona Virus Data

Special Measures

 Crowds will always pull a crowd

Among the followers in shops

‘Keep calm’ ‘Don’t Panic’ signals

A call to arms of trolley crops

Bursting full of ‘Me First’ rammed

Trolley rush hour blocked up lanes

Boxes tins and jar preserves

Leaving vacant shelf remains

Elbow nudging cold heart stares

Harvest gatherings of greed

As the terrified grab anything

Irrespective of their need

The flustered can’t be reasoned with

They’re not used to going short

Can’t cutback in case they lack

Anything they could have bought

The freedom dash will soon deplete

Hordes with barefaced disregards

Will level up their wartime wants

Once they receive their ration cards

Memetically Speaking

Me and me don’t make a meme

We’re neither different nor the same

Although our culture and behaviour

May sometimes imitate that game

Me and me define the what we are

We pay no heed to replication

The pair of us though well connected

Are not keen on duplication

Me and we like to disagree

Play indecision with each other

Sending ideas back and forth

Which one of us will smother

Your Hygiene Needs You

It started with a breeze

A wicked wind a blowing

Sent a little molecule

To find a host unknowing

Like a game of passing parcels

It was shared within a sneeze

A tickle splutter secret agent

Some kind of sneaky little wheeze

Gathering up in little groups

Where loving touch expands

Where if you find yourself among

Then take good care

and wash your hands

Pundits with their expertise

Dished the dirt among the dishes

Deciding what precisely must be done

No time for yearnings or best wishes

There was hankering for scurrying

To hide away keep out of touch

Rubber gloves and hot zone clothing

Locked down inside a hutch

Bulletins were vague and nebulous

Giving hints and veiled assertions

Where washing hands was so essential

The crucial key to all exertions

So have a care and be aware 

Mass disinterest has a price

If we don't do what all we must 

Mass contagion is not nice

We can be honest more responsible

Change our ways on sanitation

Clean up streets and all conveniences

To limit virus devastation

Vicariously

Looking through the eyes of others

To see it their way if I can

I imagine how their take on stuff

Might be spontaneous or a plan

To walk in their shoes may be limping

Playing mind games with their feet

Understanding every nuanced lilt

To find we tilt whenever we meet

So putting on my neighbours hat

I bend a line to make it straight

Then paraphrase that awkward gaze

When I got insight far too late

How Odd

Our cosmos where we are a dot

Full of things and more beyond

From terabytes to nano mites

In our joined-up living bond

Collectively we are but grains

However large or small we are

One of countless parts voluminous

Astoundingly bizarre 

By our nature we associate 

In cooperatives we hang

Eventually clump in a lump

When once again we do Big Bang

Then if by chance again it does

Explode a universal joint

Unlikely we'd be us again

And if we are then what's the point

Funnel Vision

STORY LINK

Last night I had a funnel dream

I saw the cosmos drain away

A sluice gate where we washed around

Turning madly down the sway

Spun swirling speed at dizzy beat

We careened and twisted out

No way that we might stem the slide

Hold back or block the funnel spout

The pressure increased overhead

We’d sunk down swirly deep

To bubble slop and double drop

In hope lucidity might creep

There came a point of destination

Around a still life tranquil lake

Where the funnel offered little else

Than to leave one wide awake

Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando had that special look 

He could speak with his expression

Emotion packed into that face

Made subtle points without digression

That sideways glance the eyelid dance

Easy breathing speaking eyes

Kept audiences in rapt suspense

With cinematograph supplies

Paradigms Lost

On the subject of examples

Methods standards old or new

What we once believed completely

We have the latest kind of true

'What is?' until we deeper delve

Or find much clearer ways to see

Remains the sum of things we know

A paradigm of ambiguity

So going forward in discovery

Seems so much more than finding facts

Settling on the latest muse

Is where the population often acts

I Sense Friday

Tonight’s the night

Of weekday nights

Friday on my mind

Puts my Saturday in sight

Levelling my mind

Friday weekday pinnacle

There’s jaunty in my stride

Take time out in town tonight

Friday grinning wide

Give me Friday favourite night

Trundling in tune

Tell me again it’s Friday

I’m gliding over the moon

Crow Me Down

Link Here for a Master Course

Venting off my steaming wrath

Letting out my pent-up stress

Blowing tops and lifting lids

I feel my way to calm redress

It’s not that I’m a grumpy sod

Whingeing at the slightest point

Though it gets me down intensely 

When my nose is out of joint

The human can get low down

When others lack simplicity

Who fail to see the understandable

As plain as crows high up the tree

The Template

I’ve made myself a benchmark
To underline and underscore
Guiding lights putting wrongs to right
Bringing all my best to fore

Things that set my scenery
Of written words and meanings
Not necessarily set in stone
Or confuse my reader’s gleanings

All my routines I can practice
Relating neatly to my style
And stay on course to reinforce
By not missing by a mile

Prone

Sometimes as I’m prone to do

Laying flat out like a stone

Listening to the worldwide drone

Interrupted by a mobile phone

Prone to wish for something new

Leave behind those days outgrown

Not bother with what I might own

Capture beauty in a classic tone

So if it’s all the same to you

We can live within the zone

Not wear our tips down to the bone

Tomorrow need not be a clone

Top That!

They keep the fizzy lively

In my fridge inside the door

In my cupboard nice and handy

Sometimes on my garage floor

They’re a marvellous invention

Since eighteen ninety-two 

By Ireland’s William Painter

Who knew exactly what to do

Keeping bubble-fizz potential

Required a mind of fizzle vision

A top class cap a snap unwrap

If you’re on a thirst quench mission

Then old Bill went to Baltimore

To invent his crowning glory

No more dreary beer or lemonade

We’re sure to have another story

A backwoodsman's bottle opener

Pinch Punch Now Let’s Do Lunch

1st. Of March 2020

Mad Hare hadn’t noticed

How today is one day late

His leaping antics yesterday

A boxed out early leap year spate

Madly needing loving company 

On the early outward bound

Driven by he knew not what

For there was little else around

Something told him it was timely

To fight his corner in the field

It seemed that now was somewhere else

Yet his prancing would not yield

The moral of this mad March yarn

Demands intensity won’t wait

No calendar dictates a date

On 'Leap-Year' needs to replicate

When everything was said and done

On this crazy springtime spree

He joined the zany misconstrued

Around a table sipping tea