When the Dogs Bite

Saturday, 27 June 2026

27th June 2026

red heat warning

peeling off sweaty knickers

hot girl

Confession

sixteen

barely an adult; barely a child

half-orphaned already

my widower father won't talk to me

I look too much like my mother.

He works early shift, overtime

comes home at two in the morning

and shouts to turn my light out

electricity doesn't grow on trees.

This is 1978, and solar technology

is still only in science fiction.

I've been transcribing Crowley;

carving a pentagram into the floorboards

while candles drip wax onto a sheep skull

found in the North Wales countryside.

I know there is no god

for what god would take a mother?

but there is certainly a devil;

I'd seen too much evidence;

impossible figures in liminal spaces,

the voice that whispers in the quiet.

Friday, 26 June 2026

26th June 2026

thunderstorm

a mere wetting of the ground

heat wave return

Corporate America

seven trumpets

the prophecy said,

but still Abaddon rises

before a single one is blown.

Where are the angels?

Where is the Redeemer?

Vengeful souls are handed fresh white robes

but there is no resurrection.

The angels are dead, or gone away

and only the devils are left.

Thursday, 25 June 2026

25th June 2026

heat wave

the dog needs to leave

cooler outside

"I'm dead," said the ghost,

but he hadn't a tongue

or lips to shape words

or his teeth or a lung

so all he could do

was to move through the air

and make people feel cold

if they're standing there.

Did I mention at all

he's invisible, too,

so he cannot be seen

when he looks out of you.

Wednesday, 24 June 2026

24th June 2026

birthday lad

"He looks like a monkey"

but we love him

Such a Nice Girl

It's very good to have a pet

a puppy or a mog;

people hear me talking

and assume it's to the dog.

I never disabuse them

of the notion that they hold

for better they don't know the truth

or else they snub me cold.

I'm taking to a demon

standing here, right next to me

it's not my fault your innocence

denies the chance to see.

The devils live around us

and they've been here all along

they're drawn to all the mayhem

and they love the dance and song.

I only tell you this because

that Doctor said to, please:

He thinks I have disorders

but his demon disagrees.

Tuesday, 23 June 2026

23rd June 2026

personal disappointment

tempered by understanding wives

best life

Thrice Times

Two youngish lesbians live in a Boot

and one wears some overalls; one wears a suit;

Overall lady is jokey and jolly

but suit wearing lady earns most of the lolly.

Suit wearing girl goes to work every day

and helps other ladies who come out as gay.

Overall Girl is a plumber, they say,

and empties the shitters of women who pay.

They live in a flat when the weather is cold

and dress to be warm for the boiler is old.

On weekends they stay in their big double bed

and one watches telly while the other has head.

They live in a tent when the weather is hot

and do crafting and drumming and play music a lot.

Suit lady has showers in communal mills

while Overalls practices frottaging skills.

Weekly they call on their favourite queen

who asks who they've done and where have they been.

She goes with them both to a dancing club rage

where ladies and boys all take turns on the stage.

At Christmas their flat is a rainbow delight

where everyone gathers for New Year's eve night.

On birthdays they gift each other some socks

and swap between roles with detachable cocks.

There may be a moral to this happy pair

but what it might be I have not a care

I merely relate what I see of my friends

for they make their own odds and they fill their own ends.

Footnote: This started out as a rhyme for children, but on reflection, I'll not enter it in the Under-Six category.

Monday, 22 June 2026

22nd June 2026

far too extreme:

my extra-wide monitor

and longsightedness

Cherries from France

A quarter-pound of cherries

cost me ninety-seven p

Another month and I can eat

the cherries on my tree.

Unless the blackbirds eat them

them I'll have to buy some more

they really are delicious

when I get them to my door.

I spit out all the cherry stones

into a handkerchief

for several grammes of arsenic

await the foolish eating thief

That's only if you bite the stones;

release the almond flavour

better to just swallow them

and choke upon the favour.

I had a friend, a little boy

who ground up all his pits

and baked them into fruit cake

for his father's angry fits.

And when his daddy passed away

the doctor wrote a note:

'He died of natural causes

with a cherry in his throat.’

Sunday, 21 June 2026

21st June 2026

money worries

it's like the old days

don't look!

Talk2Me

I love that you're so clever

you really, really are

the very top of your career

and drive a Jaguar.

I love that you're hard-working

and strive to pay the bills

and pay off all those fucking debts

despite your being ill.

I love that you're so loving

and know that I am yours;

I love that I'm your Number One

among your paramours.