When the Dogs Bite

Tuesday, 3 February 2026

3rd February 2026

avoiding the pastries

in the boulangerie

free petit pains

tell me all about thy greatest canine friend

and how they look at thee with such devotion.

Explain to me how such connections never end

and how they greet thee with commotion.

Dost thy beloved pooch wag their glorious tail

until their bum falls off allotted balance.

Do they resent the presence of incoming mail

and when told to stay do they still silently advance?

Art thou shown their favourite stick or toy

when thou has been gone just a little while

and are they not the goodest girl or boy

whose presence is enough to make thee smile?

They occupy a portion of thy life on earth

and yet thou art their whole, the centre of their world.

Monday, 2 February 2026

2nd February 2026

airport run

across the Yorkshire moors

morning fog

Thou canst barely keep thine eyes from closing

And yet thou chooseth not to sleep this day

For on the steel rails thou were’t dozing:

Almost lost thy work for lack of save.

Then Anxiousness did show its ugly face

In light of all the words that might have gone

Down to the hell reserved for author’s waste

Whence to dwell eternally, undone.

And now the numpty that thou seems to be

Hath left thy laptop charger on thy desk

At home and let the fucker die before thee

See those disassembled lines redressed.

Now all of France be scoured for laptop docking

While angels whirl above are gently mocking.

Sunday, 1 February 2026

1st February 2026

stepping into light

a midpoint in the darkness

Imbolc

Here, Tomorrow.

Thou cans't never say that I was false of heart,

for I loved fully and without restraint

for if I ever seemed too far apart

'twas naught but my emotive state.

Betwixt autism and untrusting calms

that any could love me or my devotion match

so many loves have sought another's arms

and quickly seen my love to be detached.

And if in later times I dids't forget thy name

'tis not a slight on thee: I remember not

for my memories and yours are not the same

and I have no thought for those who severed knot.

My life is in the present whereupon I anchor fast

and only inside nightmares do I dare relive the past.

Saturday, 31 January 2026

31st January 2026

tiny paintings

I never intend to sell

shrouded in plastic

Alvechurch, 1970

I was always one of those loners

who preferred to read than go out to play

books from the library, some from donors

to a jumble sale or two on Saturday.

One at eleven; another at two

at the Barnett Green scouts or our own village hall

sixpence to enter, but wait in the queue

and stay for an hour, until Mother's call.

My reading was never parentally censored

on the basis that knowledge was better than none

Seven years old and already in MENSA

I raced through the school years much smarter than some.

My favourites were always just stacked by my bed

Apocalypse sci-fi and horror-filled dread.

Friday, 30 January 2026

30th January 2026

brief flurry

taken to the ground

ankle lock applied

Wolverhampton, 1988

Dids't thou ever have a boss that thou admired

asks the card drawn from the deck of memory

and thinking of them all makes me feel tired

for so few of the jobs appealed to me.

My first job was as jobbing gardener, I

would dig and weed and prune for little pay

my next as self-employed myself I'd ply

to those men, often married, for the day.

I worked behind the bar for little wage

and supplemented income playing pool

with falsifying records of my age

in those days it was but a minor rule.

Of all, there was but one who took my heart,

and he a lecturer in visual Art.

Thursday, 29 January 2026

29th January 2026

Blink camera

so much of a deterrent

it got nicked

Stubb's Road, 1990

Evening sunshine in communal living room

a tenant in an upstairs rented flat

bought for pennies by a slumlord blue tycoon

but drier than the one though rented last.

The furniture thou use is most thine own

from years of student living in the town

and sharing with a man who carveth stone

and an Irish lad who talks often of home.

In this golden hour thou is harkening a piece

an opera by the famous Philip Glass

which lulls thy troubled thought into release

and brings to thee serenity of mass.

Now Glass cancels performing in the former Kennedy Hall

while the president doth name himself the Greatest King of All.

Wednesday, 28 January 2026

28th January 2026

fourteen years

I've played Elder Scrolls Online

subscription cancelled

Bread for Every Meal

Wouldst thou become an omnivore again

consuming all the creatures with a face

'twould save thee time and money, though the shame

of eating living souls brings fall from grace.

Mashed up sardines upon a single piece of toast

would cost nary a pound to set the meal

Onion on a slab of bread with cheese to roast

or with kettle-poaching teacup egg appeal.

A warming mug of Bovril mixed with dripping;

or perhaps a tin of soup with buttered bread

a salty mug of Oxo for the sipping;

Potted meat in jars; mac and cheese instead.

And to be praised of ages yet to be.

tomatoes ladled over bread, with just a smidge of mustard;

eggy bread, a pot of tea; a bit of jam and custard.