Short Shillings Poems

Extractions are cheaper than fillings
But the dentist went mad with the drillings
So alas and alack
And a bucket of plaque
 It cost me two quid; forty shillings!...

Read More

I carried two shillings, one for each eye,
For my love was a dying soul.
When she left I kissed her goodbye -
Covered her eyes to soften death's toll.

2-28-20
Contest: Poe Etic Verse
Sponsor: Charles Messina...

Read More

Scrooge's Clerk, Bob Cratchit
Earned his paycheck, and hopes to match it
He needs to buy his Christmas dinner
But Scrooge just pinched his shillings thinner! 




____________________________________
For Andrea's Contest: Christmas Clarihew
12/10/14...

Read More

I'm a fresh pastry made with different fillings
A plate of me will cost you a few shillings
Sometimes made with spinach and ricotta cheese
Topped with tomato sauce and fresh, green peas
It depends, my pockets are sometimes filled with salmon and cream
I am the Mediterranean dream
I am solely
The one and only Ravioli !...

Read More

( a before independent Nigeria, excerpt )




************************************
At night
He came with his family;
The whole band,
All looking somewhat tired and hungry.
Oga!
He shouted, and then a quick grin.
Month end don pass ooo,
And you promised
To pay on demand the Sum of Ten shillings’
You remember?




Godwin Henry Osaigbovo Pa Shakespeare...

Read More

As she wanders 
the streets, Sally
is ready 
to discover 
the beauty  
in anyone 
who will 
let her 
harvest it.
She spends 
some hundred 
shillings a day 
to keep a grip 
on reality – 
two or three 
bubble baths 
re-connect her 
to her life.
One day 
she met 
a man 
to amuse 
and also 
remembered 
the child.
Ever since, 
Sally is herself, 
accountable to 
no one else....

Read More

What social distance, at sunrise?
Cheek by jowl,no surprise
No greedy cops yet on patrol
Throwing awry, infection control

Elsewhere the experts crunch the numbers
As the hungry nation slumbers
A hundred  deaths amid too many feelings
Negative test results for three thousand shillings

What is true, what is false, we know not
Which book have we sought?
Wisdom, the beginning of all understanding, real
Makes conventional thinking surreal...

Read More

Every ten year old needs a hustle 
The cattle yards the Friday shuffle 

The farmer need a sandwich for lunch
Or a horse they've got a hunch  

I will run to get your dinner
Or place the bet for the sinner

It makes no difference to me
I am just hustling for a tuppenny

In the back door of bookie shop
Two Shillings I did drop

Over to the copper fiddle
For the ham off the griddle

I hand Paddy his slip and meat
A sixpence on the hustlers beat...

Read More