Long Highly strung Poems

“Concrete Hearts, the Deep End Keys and the Miniaturist's Poetry of Sleep”

Following the Babel paths,
where footprints progress
like rough-hewn braille,
temptation shows itself well deep
to be turned and touched,
substantially labyrinth

The Open 
is lead  
further in, and...

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The slabbed ceiling tiles are becoming the patio slabs of my childhood home.
I'm highly strung in more ways than one, trying to send my mind elsewhere,
but half-buried memories insert themselves, sliding in with the speculum.
Five...

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I can understand Cowgirls
And some are real cows
But 'Cowboys'?
Shouldn't they be Bullboys?
Why did they call the chimp
On Tarzan 'Cheater'?
I wouldn't play cards
Did Williams Tell spill the beans?
If rabbits have holes? 
Can they be filled again?
So...

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Ever since I can remember
it was love at first sight
I'd put pinup on my bedroom wall
and dream about them every night.

I'd draw pictures in my school books
and drooled when I saw one on TV
They looked...

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so                                 
 ...

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When I was growing up
I was so struck by the beauties
I Saw on TV and in magazines
I became obsessed with thinking about them
One day I'll have one
Maybe two or even more
I wasn't too sure
I'd lay...

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A Study in Character

My aunt…. 
wears jewellery that winks as she walks
and she always has a sharp, shivery look
that you pay attention to …just in case!
She makes the world around her nervous
and I can hear...

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I am not an American
But I have got the hump
Not with all Americans
Mainly with D J Trump.

He has muddled my thinking.
And turned my reasoning upside down,
And wiped the smile from my face,
Replacing it with a...

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Michael was a simple lad, not clever, bright or smart, yet Michael had what many lack, a
pure and trusting heart,

His world was filled with fairy-tales, of magic and make believe, he had not an ounce...

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It is the girl in the car, on warm leatherette, 
Who, in the Summer slipstream, teased the wheel 
And gunned her engine heart; 
She graced the passing furnace air, and angel sweat 
Tracked slowly down...

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From a tender age I felt a strain with my mother
She labelled me “highly strung” I irritated her!
I struggled through life, desperate for her affection
The harder I tried to please, the greater the divide.
She loved...

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Crushingly brutal, this wasting disease,
That it eats through me with increasing ease.
Oh, in the painful rigidity of lack luster limbs,
My mortal friend still fights, still clings,
As world passes by on the summer breeze.

Who would have...

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Cast thy stone, like a fire climbing a tree,
highly strung, its fuel you need,
powerful, can carry a heavy load,
no question, a Fire Horse you be!

Inconsistent by nature, procrastinate but not in love,
your alluring beauty defined...

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He could see her highly strung face
Behind the cloaked veil
A face taught to behold beautiful turbulent.
He could feel the shiver in her timid heart
And the fearful spasm
Running down her spine.
He held her hand and whorled...

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"He didn't return his shopping cart,
He parked right over the line,
And this guy doesn't use indicators at all,
He drives as though he is blind,"

Are some of the things she points out in this town,
Of what...

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Imprisoned by clammy apron strings
She squats amidst domestic disorder
Dirty dishes, smelly household linens
Blackened pots and foamy dishwater.

Hastily, she conjures breakfast on the table
While vigilantly eyeing  the baby's cradle
A highly- strung neurotic woman
Nursing ghosts of...

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