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Best Poems Written by Deborah Alexander

Below are the all-time best Deborah Alexander poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Deborah Alexander Poem

Hillside Stream In Early March

Replenished with rain, it rushes on,
Its brown water pours and spills
Like vinegar from the pickle bottle,
Tumbling over, bubbling through
The jagged jumble of rocks,
Those early plants pushed aside to let it pass,
Its running melody ringing clear,
Competing with the robin’s call,
The stream pushes on, its cheerful song
Belies the chill beneath,
As it strives to outrun Winter,
While the fragile sun sighs
‘Too soon, too soon’.

Details | Deborah Alexander Poem

Pearl Wedding

When we first met
You were impossibly irritating,
And yet, so stubbornly persistent that,
Like a piece of grit in an oyster,
You just stayed put,
Until, over time, 
We created something beautiful.

Details | Deborah Alexander Poem

Parenting In the 1960s

The back of the leg was seen as a place
That was suitable for a slap,
For a child who was rude, or out of control,
Or who stood in the kitchen when Mum had been baking,
And who sneakily stole
A freshly-baked, still-warm sausage roll,
Who, on hearing a footstep,
Stuffed it in her mouth – whole,
And received a slap, and a sending to bed,
To think about what she had done.
Now it’s fifty years on, and Mum’s long gone,
And looking back, I guess I deserved that slap,
But who could resist a freshly-baked, still-warm sausage roll?

Details | Deborah Alexander Poem

Wake Up Call

Wake Up Call

That’s right. Burst my bubble.
Break my dream, why don’t you.
‘Open your eyes’, you say.
‘Wake up to reality’, you say.
I should press your snooze button
And turn back to my dreams,
But you’ll only be back
With another wake up call.
OK, OK, I’m getting up.
Here I go.
Just give me a minute to pack my dreams in my bag.
I’m taking them with me,
And leaving you behind.

Details | Deborah Alexander Poem

Locked Out

I came home and found him
Holed up with my best friend,
This time it’s definitely the end, I cried.
They sighed, their eyes met,
They rolled out of bed
And strolled out onto the balcony for a cigarette.
‘That’s life’, they shrugged, and shared a secret smile.
I shut the balcony doors behind them,
Hoped the rush-hour crowd would find them entertaining.
I turned the key, turned up the TV,
‘No, this is life’, I said,
Re-made the bed, from scratch (no patch),
Ordered a pizza and opened the wine,
And noticed, with a smile,
That it was raining.

Details | Deborah Alexander Poem

Snowstorm

Snowstorm
Haven’t been here for a while,
Life turned crazy for a bit,
Like those plastic snowstorms you can buy at Christmas,
Shaking in your child-sized fist,
Making the snow swirl in an improbable way round Mary and Joseph on their journey.
Seemed like someone shook my snow-globe,
The Universe. Or God.
Causing confusion to swirl in an unpredictable way around me on my journey,
Blurring the signs along the way,
Making me wait, making me wait,
Life turned crazy for a while,
But sit it out. Bide your time. 
It’ll clear. And the path will reappear.

Details | Deborah Alexander Poem

Conversation From a Warm Bed On a Cold Night

‘Listen. The shed door’s banging in the wind.’
‘I heard it. I was just going down to fix it.’
‘You were not.’
‘I was. I was just thinking about it.’
‘You were not. God, listen to that wind, will you?’
‘I’ll go.’
‘No, I’ll go. You stay there.’

(Pause)

‘Have you fastened the door?’
‘I have.’
‘Was everything alright?’
‘It was not.’
‘Why, what was wrong?’
‘That cat.' 
'What cat?'
'The one that doesn’t belong to us.’
‘The wild one?’
‘That’s the one. She was in the shed.’
‘It’s a rough night.’
‘She’s made herself real comfortable. On the sacking someone left in the corner.’
‘Who could blame her? On a night like this?’
‘And she’s produced a little family all of her own.’
‘Oh.’
‘Hmm.’

(Silence)

‘It’s my belief...'
'Yes?'
'It's my belief you left the door open. Deliberate.’
‘I did not.’
‘Knowing full well she had a bellyful of kits.’
‘I did not.’

(Silence)

‘Well, it’s a rough night, alright.’
‘It is.’
‘I fastened the door up, anyways.’
(Quietly)
‘Thank you.’