Best Sherbert Poems
Flying Saucers, Flake, Bar Six
Country Style, Gobstoppers, Twix
Arrow Bars and Sherbert Dabs
Sweet Tobacco, Lucky Bags
Toffee Crisp and Dairy Crunch
Grand Seville and Milky Lunch
Beta Bars, Loot, Candy Floss
The mysterious chewing gum flavour loss
Golden Crisp, Nut Crisp and Fuse
Extra, Bliss and Trebor Chews
Caramel and Raspberry Ruffles
Drifter and Milk Chocolate Truffles
‘99’ Flake ice cream cones
Zooms and Fabs and Toblerones
Coffee Break, Bitz, Victory Vs
Cadbury’s Special Recipes
Swisskit, Gold Mine, Apple Jack
Tiffin, Feast and Caramac
Welcome, Skippy and Sultana
Nutty, Banjo and Cabana
Chewing Nuts, Cough Candy Twist
Butterscotch and Butterkist
Crunchie, Topic, Fudge, Mintola
Super Mousse, Crazy Joe Cola
Golden Cup, Fruit Flavoured Rocks
(The secret of) The Black Magic Box
Floral Gums and Cherry Lips
Olde English Spangles, Walnut Whips
Kinder toys encased in plastic
Necklace sweets linked on elastic
Butter Mints, Fruit Polos, Yorkies
Sherbert Lemons, Sherbert Strawberries
Bazooka Joes and Liquorice pipes
Lollipops with swirly stripes
Mint Cracknel, Taxis, long red laces
Texan Bars and Funny Faces
Winter Mixture, Rainbow Drops
Jazzies, Kit Kat, Pips, Ice Pops
Toffee Bon Bons, Drumsticks, Rolos
Amazin’ Raisin, Aztec, Mojos
Barley Sugar, Chocolate Limes
Daims that changed their name from Dimes
Jelly Babies, Jelly Tots
Milk Gums, Munchies, Mars, Pear Drops
Coltsford Rock and Anglo Bubblies
Sugared Almonds, Frozen Jubliies
Peanut Brittle, Prize, Ice Breaker
Dolly Mixtures, Old Jamaica
Kop Kops, Wine Gums, Laughs and Treets
Jap Desserts and whistling sweets
Fishermen's Friends and Hacks and Zubes
Pineapple Chunks and Cola Cubes
Everton Mints and Pontefract Cakes
White chocolate mice and jelly snakes
Refreshers, Teacakes, Swizzles, Pacers
Toffee Logs, Fruit Gums and Waifers
Rumba, Dipped Flake, T Bar, Tunes
Fry's Five Centres, Macaroons
Bars and boxes of Milk Tray
Milky Bar and Milky Way
This ‘Pick and Mix’ is yours to share
With all sweet lovers
everywhere.
I sat on the couch in her office.
I'm a piece of work
She asked me "what ails you?"
I smiled because I didn't know better.
I smiled as I spoke of the pills I took last night,
And of the piano tutor who took me
Even though I was only twelve.
I know he was a pervert
But I drowned my sorrows in sherbert
And cut myself for twelve more years.
Her jaw dropped.
The feelings rise out of my body and into the air
Like bubbles in a can of diet cola.
I try to grab on to them
I try to understand the horror on my therapist's face.
The bubbles break on my skin;
All I'm left with is a saccharine grin
And no more insight than I had last night
When lay on my bed with a vial of Xanax and a bottle of gin.
Hillsides shimmer in summer's golden fire
as marmalade sun dawns on poppied slopes.
I run with Monarch butterflies higher
barefoot in honey with tangerine hopes.
I hear the butter chirp of a warbler's song
and smile at God's creative citrine zest.
While I inhale the gold-coined sun, I long
for the Monarch's dappled orange vest--
If only I could shed my morose shades
and pluck the redly poppies off his grave;
I could be one with this saffron parade,
embrace euphoria, live the colors I crave.
Hillsides of valor: once I held his quest.
Now I turn to ruby poppies and I scorn,
but at myself or all in us that's best.
I cannot change the past nor can I mourn
a past I cannot change. But on this hill
I feel the poppies in their sherbert folds;
they lilt like orange butterflies and fill
life with sunrise, the beauty Monarchs hold.
7/5/17
Nose pressed flat upto the glass,
Pockets tinkling full of brass;
Oblong jars,row on row
Candy -filled,to over flow.
Mintoes,chews and Pontefract cakes,
Limes and milk chocolate flakes;
Jelly beans and sweet love-hearts,
A few of each ,just to start.
Toffee whirls and butterscotch,
Long liquorice laces,all top-notch;
Aniseed balls,French bonbons,
Available now without coupons.
Sugared almonds and white mice,
Vanilla fudge,a penny a slice!
Just for starters a chocolate ice,
As it's going at half-price.
Barley sugar and a sherbert straw,
The shop bell tinkles as I close the door;
Is that the time! I'll have to skate,
Back into school,I can't be late.
Is it a sherbert day?
Any day is
for our particolored poet.
She waltzes in a mobile gown -
peaches and plums,
lemons and cotton candy pinks.
The rivet of cold sherbert
or lemonade stirred,
painted - her prismatic words
gently placed upon her plate.
we gobble them up or slow down
to catch the crystal shake -
the windchime of her mind.
2/28/2022
"Road to Lovejoy - Piano for the Self Taught" (Part 2)
His name was
Flight Left-Tennant V.C.Burton,
or "Victor Charlie Bravo", when he
got pulled over by the cops, explaining
"a sherbert or two Lynette, but not on the rocks".
though he makes me spell it
off by heart
“Flight L.I.E.U.T.E.N.A.N.T”.
for spelling it right I get
Lamingtons and a hot Cuppa sugary Tea.
Royal Australian Airforce
(R.A.A.F.) - "R Double A, F"
his current stint,
“Mate! Airforce base with all the big Spitfires
and Jet Fighters, Amberley,"
then later after
"THE" "Event"
(quotation marks hushed reverent tone)...
he asks for posting up the Mountain
7 Stores Depot,
free reign of the "Mess"
where there he is the Commander's Adjutant,
his rank still Flight Left-Tennant...
I think they must be very messy there
and he cleans up all the mess.
"The Yanks say Loo-Tennant!”
he advised in his Sargent Major way -
his pride of course
were the medals
he wore from his Tour of Duty days...
First Regiment into Vietnam
Saigon based, Royal Australian Army
way back-in-the-day.
“We're HOME Nan”, he gently
carries me out of the car
up to bed
from the rented
Airforce Base home's
driveway.
It's no tin shed, it's a flaming Fibro Mansion.
“I’ll get your sisters next,
Cream Buns for Breakfast!
Tomorrow’s Sunday”.
It was Saturday night,
we’d been for a visit down
the mountain to North East
near the Ocean that day
to lay flowers on
HER grave.
“We’ll do Bribie Island another day.
I’ll read you bloody Loose Arabs 3",
this delivered so so not P.C.,
"the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner,
tomorrow night. I’ve had enough
of the Nicene Creed for one day!”.
Piano for the Self Taught? Well,
that’s a story for another
day, something that can’t be
bought.
Priceless in it’s own way.
This is a story of
Love,
“Unconditional” -
the Lovejoy-Burton Way.
...to be continued.
(Lovejoy-Burton/2017 Dec)
1."RoadToLovejoy- (Piano for the Self Taught)"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8dPPtMiwl4
They called it school
I called it hell
From the huge imposing prison like doors
To the doom like toll of the bell
Everyday the same
Running for the school bus
Full of uncivilized Wild kids
Being pushed and shoved
Countless kids in uniform
Fearing the teachers and the day they were born
Satchel bags and lucky bags
Late for lessons again
Going to the headmasters office
For the cane ooh how my bum was in pain
Teacher at the blackboard
Pupils getting bored thinking about girls
Motorbikes and cars
Playing football in the yard
Playing sports in skirts and shorts
The one too big that moma bought
School desks fountain pens and ink
Boy how some of my classmates did stink
Trying to blow up the science lab
Bubbly gum and sherbert dabs
Giggling girls and bashful boys
Girls jutting out everywhere
Pigtails and ribbon on their hair
Always getting into a fight
Going home with a torn blazer and black eye every night
Lots of kisses on my homework
Rolling about in the dirt
Pouring ink into the headmasters aquarium
Holes in your trouser bum
Crafty cigarette hidden behind a wall
Morning assembly in the hall
School dinners you couldn't pick
Forced down your throat and made you sick
Being punished and kept behind doing lines
I must have wrote 'I must be good' a million times
Frog spawn put into teachers bag
Gas taps left on in the lab
The school nurse giving you a jab
Riot breaks out in class Running a race on sports day and coming last
Pea shooter and catapult Pulling your tongue out and being rude to adults
First love and nervous thumbled kiss
Girls with new sticky out bits
Hair growing in places it didn't before
Limbs aching and so sore
Always in trouble up to no good playing truant in the wood
Letting the tiers down on the headmasters car
Girls wearing training bra's
Exams were such a sham but wrote the answers under the bandage on my
hand Teachers talking about things I didn't understand
What a waste of time I was going to be a pop star and soon a man
Those daydreams of youth that still remain aloof
Hiding in the bushes watching girls playing hockey and net ball on the field
I still recall how that used to feel
Long school summer holidays away from hell
School books thrown down the well
Then back to school again to days of terror
And pain up early facing hell.
Peter Dome,copyright.2014. July.
SUNSET vs' SUNRISE
** Sunset **
The afterglow flame
Creeping under the cold creek
Daylight, gone again
** Soap Dish **
Daytime TV blues
Tune in tomorrows soap box
Dramatic, dusk wind
** Evening Star **
Tired sound waves
Waiting for eventfulness
Hour of the beast
** Atmospheric **
Phenomenon Light
Under the zodiacal night
Kisses and shivers
** Twilight **
Locked in my slumber
Vampire face awaken
Thirst like no other
** Sundown **
Aurora fading
What goes up, has to come down
crowfeet, black and white
__________________________
~~ Tequila Sunrise ~~
Break of day, snooze
Cockcrow without a whisper
Coyote Ugly
~~ DAWN ~~
Same Situation
Mentally agonizing;
Sunny side egg twist
~~ New Moon ~~
beautiful sun rays
Sun awaits for ebony
beautiful moonbeam
~~ Adjust the Setting ~~
Breathtaking sunrise
Beyond the horizon sky
Sherbert colored beach
~~ Skipping Rocks ~~
Glitter dusk on lids
Birds sing me a lullaby
Kids playing by lake
~~ Sunrise Industry ~~
Shining superstar
Golden streets with no stop sign
Lunch time draws nearer
by;p.d.
Nose pressed flat upto the glass,
Pockets tinkling full of brass;
Oblong jars,row on row
Candy -filled,to over flow.
Mintoes,chews and Pontefract cakes,
Limes and milk chocolate flakes;
Jelly beans and sweet love-hearts,
A few of each ,just to start.
Toffee whirls and butterscotch,
Long liquorice laces,all top-notch;
Aniseed balls,French bonbons,
Available now without coupons.
Sugared almonds and white mice,
Vanilla fudge,a penny a slice!
Just for starters a chocolate ice,
As it's going at half-price.
Barley sugar and a sherbert straw,
The shop bell tinkles as I close the door;
Is that th time! I'll have to skate,
Back into school,I can't be late.
Oh an ode to jenni mann
To write an ode, oh an ode to jenni mann
Would be good, and proper.
Fitting.
Fitting, not like the clothes your distant aunty gets you.
They never fit.
Ill-fitting
Unlike writing an ode, oh an ode to jenni mann.
Fitting.
When the plutonian shores of my heart wash asunder my sadness and heart-ache at your loss
I shall endeavour to beware the boars who gnash without remorse- they do make me cross
Their eyes filled with the darkness of the Forest of Dean
But who is the Dean? The Dean of a University? A cathedral perhaps?
Or is his name simply Dean Fitting?
Fitting.
We had weed cakes.
The amnesia induced seizure did not please ya
Nor did it ease ya into loving me
Perhaps if I had sherbet it'd be different.
Sherbet? or Sherbert? I'm not a gambling man
I shouldn't have left you in your seizure jenni, i shouldn't have left you
Fitting.
Now you're dead.
And there's no amount of sherbe(r)t in the world that can bring you back to my nest of sexual decadence
My quagmire of lust is brown and hollow - like an easter egg, only there is no joy here jenni.
There is no fun to be had without you, all I can now do is reminisce of sherbe(r)t, boars, seizures and ill-fitting clothes
I am stuck in a perpetual state of limbo, I failed to beware the burn, I am in an ever self-sustaining maelstrom of torment and sexual grief
F*ck
I am no longer,
Fitting.
Dazzling flecks of gold fall lightly from flight,
joy and grace spun from translucent silk spools.
The sun like orange sherbert melts from my sight,
resplended in a rich robe of fine jewels.
A cooling sky bathes in soft sunlit pools.
Honeysuckle blooms on the horizon.
Cotton clouds yawn, puffing over the sun.
Taste the sweet dreams of her ripened peach gloam.
From Heaven, kisses goodnight have begun.
The sun, now spent, sleeps so bright stars can roam.
Stars glitter aside the mountain tops
Casting glows of orange and pink
So beautiful they listen to you
Telling a story before they die
Casting glows of orange and pink
The sky is sustained in sherbert
It tells its story before it dies
Peaks echo and snowflakes fall
As the sky is sustained in sherbert
So beautiful they listen to you
The peaks echo and snowflakes fall
While stars glitter aside the mountain tops
blush peach gerbera daisies
echinacea marmalade
angel’s trumpet cassie’s curls
chantilly peach snapdragon
christa coral bells
daylily tangerine
apricot whirl narcissus
a la mode dahlia
zinnia thumbelina
peaches ‘n dreams hollyhock
hues of apricot lisianthus
hawaiian punch carnation
sienna sunset coreopsis
indian summer rose
toasting pink champagne
hues of apricot
AP: Honorable Mention 2025, Honorable Mention 2020, Front Page Pick 2020
The sweet shop stood at the end of his road
He passed it every day
He passed it on the way to school
And on his way home again
He knew the man who worked in there
He seemed a jolly sort
He had a big red smiley face
That welcomed you into his shop
His mom had told him not to stop
His dinner would be ready
He shouldn’t fill his tummy yet
But ooh they did look yummy!
He pressed his nose against the window
To see the treats inside
The shelves were full from top to bottom
And bursting from side to side
And all of a sudden he found himself
Walking through the door
The temptation had proved just too great
For someone who’s only four!
So many sweets he could choose from
He didn’t know where to start
He really liked the pink and white mice
Though he never could tell them apart
Maybe he should have a sherbert dip
That made his finger yellow
Or chocolate éclairs that stuck to his teeth
Or milkshakes or mushrooms or jello
He finally decided on jelly babies
Because he liked them best!
He rummaged around in his deepest pocket
And found just fifty pence
Would that be enough, he wondered
He kept his fingers crossed
He walked very slowly up to the counter
To find out how much they cost
“Excuse me mister”, he politely asked
“Could you tell me how much these are?
I hope they’re not more than fifty pence
Cos I don’t want a chocolate bar”
“Now then young man”, the smiley man said
“I’ve got good news for you
Your jelly babies come to forty nine pence
And I’ll give you some gobstoppers too!”
“Ooh thank you, thank you, thank you”, he said
As he jumped up and down like a spring
“I’ll be back to your shop at the end of next week
To buy some more yummy things!”
June is knocking
at the door
dressed in fragrant
summer gold
cherry blossoms
cuckoo songs
bathing suits
volleyballs
riding waves
spitting salt
sherbert
sky
cooling
ball
joy of love
smiling friends
dancing
barefoot
on the sand
closed books
and open shores
bloom in June
roses
and love.
Honorable Mention in Brian Strand-Your Choice H-5/17/25