Long Anaesthetic Poems

"The Emperor’s New Clothes"

We write about beliefs
our prayer flags flying 
like chrysallis books on a branch 
of those higher deities we trust, 
submerged, we are always listening 

in our quiet hours of sleep
mostly when 3.33...

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      Butterfly bless dances from flower to flower, 
sipping nectar with its slender proboscis imitating Bacchus with prospectus,
direct to us.

Streaks in the open air with flagrant color, 
as the morning...

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The river boils and burns
Churning the soil downriver
Silencing the calm quiver
Halting the anaesthetic shiver
This fissure in the earth was the sliver of hope in this dearth
A cool spring, the fuel to my being
The Sun has...

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The vampire saw the campfire and was hovering around 
For all the little children were just sitting on the ground 
He doesn't mind the fire, it’s not ultra violet light
So he listens to his dinner...

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My dearest, sweet Daddy
I wish Australia wasn't so far away!
I can't just "pop over" to say hello
England is on the other side of the world
For one thing there's the cost
If the subject of money wasn't...

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The way the nurse looked at me, told me
That something wasn’t quite right
It’s why I‘d gone to the surgery that day
I’d been feeling nauseous all night,
The nurse called the doctor, who came to say
“We’re going...

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OBE
I never really believed in the white light
At the end of a tunnel-try as I might
I was having a laugh with the anaesthetist
When the surgeon did ask him for a quick assist
“Why is she not...

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With glorious primordial certainty
  the sun will rise, the sun will set;
likewise you languish knowing what you're about,
  you know what is and isn’t so;
  yet, ultimately, you don’t.
Chained to the chromium...

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it was her normal state of affairs

she smelled the cacophony of blindness

touched an overflow of drought

listened to audible brightness

tasted a crescendo of palpations

until she was so out of tune

with everyone else’s senses

that fragmented perception was...

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After July abdicates, august August arrives,
and the year advances, as annually agreed. 
After assessing alternative alternatives and accords,
as anticipated, no other affirmative alternative is advanced. 
Actually August is always an annual actuality, affably accepted
as amicable...

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Flickering hazel eyes flecked with cataract silver, glittering this way and that. 
Eyebrows high and a piercing pupil saying
'Move this ing thing, lest I punch my left hooded, binded fist a jab hand on these...

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I ‘m missing him like we miss  that lost tooth till the gum heals.
I ‘ve been in the dentist’s chair
Had the anaesthetic but  still  felt the tug  and force.
And the dentist...

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Diamonds on the soles of her shoes brushed the intricate parquet 

Carmel was swept off her feet to the clanging tunes of Flamencos 

A pink flamingo swapping kisses and castanets high above the floor

Gypsy tattoos...

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CHOOSING A BOOK

Every book in the profusion on our shelves
Tells a story that invites us to engage
Draws us with wonderment to turn the page 
But yet more, recounts some truths about ourselves

Seeking new diversion for...

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When the monoliths burst into shock-horror flame,
People gaping through windows at chaos again,
The box in the corner shows all that was done
From multiple angles, repeat and re-run.
If someone could stop it, pray God that they...

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( A COLLABORATION BY NATASHA L SCRAGG AND ROBERT JAMES LIGUORI )

Aether is the fabric of our universe -
Tiny granules that transfer energy
In the form of waves ~~~
This goes on unseen constantly!

It propagates light and...

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Aether is the fabric of our universe -
Tiny granules that transfer energy
In the form of waves ~~~
This goes on unseen constantly!

It propagates light and other waves,
Longitudinal and transverse
( Or electromagnetic )
Right across the universe!

Aether stretches...

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F aceless is the connivance of our deadly foe
A llegiance to our Saviour is the way to go
I mmutable services of great magnitude
T rust in holy teachings shall not be misconstrued
H abitual desire brings us...

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[A true story]

Back in March this very year
A back that hurt right here and here
After many weeks of groans
Google told me, “Kidney stones.”

On the phone for half a day
Got a doctor’s date in May
“Hmmm,” she...

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My little fella
I held you softly against me 
For only a few minutes 
Staring into the horrified eyes of a nurse
Who saw death
Where I saw love in an ocean of bitter sadness 

My little fella
I...

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Just another endless drink of whisky
Sinking like another sunset
Then the sharpness of the pain begins to fade;
Like a friendly favourite anaesthetic
Numbing heartache and the sadness
Of another stupid mess that I have made.
I can sit here...

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Victorian Era
~Victorian Era~
I think that the Victorian age would have suited me
The ingenuity fashion the great exhibition
Would all have been fascinating for me to see.
Not a child up chimneys, that’s not my mission
Not a Debtors...

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No pain, as such, just aching,
spreading down arms, radiating
to neck and jaw and mouth.
The zap of clot busting drugs infused,
driven through the cannulated vein;
morpheus then followed, fast. pale, aesthetic,
anaesthetic with anti-emetic trailing after.
Frenetic rushing and...

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Beneath the arc of crumbling dusk,
Lisps down the petals of the rose
To crimson-kiss the fountain bowls
Where the champagne faucet flows.
The guests in boarding houses
Felt the smoulder of their bones
Balding walls restricting transit
Behind the mortar work...

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OLD  MAN  FALLING ASLEEP  READING


Soundless words and mute silence, 
Slowly losing my place, no rush, 
Where time stops and speech ends - 
Quiet  noiseless hush. 

Long pale sunbeam has crept
Into roomy...

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