When the Dogs Bite

Friday, 17 April 2026

17th April 2026

kicked in the face

and punched in the mouth

great sparring session

Changing Clothes

my father had two cats

Katie, my mum's old Tuxedo

and Ginny, a grey moggie

a sister didn't want anymore,

and two or three dogs

all fed once a day;

all fed in the kitchen.

his cats ate slower than the dogs

and were fed on a high shelf

which was all well and good

until his friend Chris was drinking tea

on a chair beneath the shelf

and Ginny ate too speedily

and spray-vomited from on-high.

Thursday, 16 April 2026

16th April 2026

Hairy Potter

Widget with a zig-zag scar

coffee spill

The Birth of Venus

Art is always considered a luxury;

an investment made by the rich

to acquire status symbols;

to boost the image of themselves in mirrors

but the common people find art

in the every day and I am nostalgic

for the book I rescued from the garage

mildewed and damp,

lithographs of Botticelli and Rembrandt

individually glued to letterpress pages

on paper heavier than cardboard

but my mom refused to have it in the house

because some of the paintings were rude.

Wednesday, 15 April 2026

15th April 2026

unexpected

I am publicly recognised

purple belt

Decluttering XIV

Memories of people once loved

and have not seen in twenty years,

can go from my life, my head,

and my house of hoarded life.

We all are dust, in the end,

and in a hundred years or more

no-one will care what I held in my hands

and said that I loved.

Tuesday, 14 April 2026

14th April 2026

catching a glance

at an overfull skip

moving on

To Wright

I catch an old friend on Insta

and apply for access to the pictures she posts.

It takes a day or two but I get the message

friend request accepted

and I click on her image,

look at her dog and her cat,

one or two of her but she's another person now

one I barely recognise

from the woman with whom I traded messages

once or twice an hour.

She's moved on.

Widowed, married, divorced, married

but still the same, sparkling eyes

and ready wit.

I'm tempted to message

but it's probably best I don't:

I am in her past, and she, mine

there is no need to stir the ashes of friendship

it's enough to know the world

is still graced with her presence.

Monday, 13 April 2026

13th April 2026

frosty morning

I am caught in a sudden shower

cherry blossom

A Bonfire of Vanity

Is life too short to enjoy the wonder?

the play of light on layers of pigment

lay down in an instant

or over a lifetime.

"You can't charge that," they tell me;

"Who would give you seven pounds

let alone seven hundred

or seventy thousand, when it took you

all of five minutes to draw."

However problematic Picasso was

(and I am glad I wasn't his wife)

he was an amazing artist

and I watched a TV interview shortly before he died

where he made a drawing live on film

and asked 30K for it.

"It only took you thirty seconds," the interviewer said,

"How can you want thousands for it?"

And Picasso, with a sad smile, shook his head.

"Thirty seconds?" he said. "It took me forty years."

So I'll keep the paint and the canvasses

and the box of tiny paperworks in the loft

and when I die

(in a few years yet, please,)

the kids can burn the lot.

Sunday, 12 April 2026

12th April 2026

online groceries

because crates of water are heavy

tiny lady delivers

Clippers

She left school at fourteen

disposed of her exercise books

and the essay about Tennyson

and went to work at a stables.

She cycled to work every day

four miles, rain or shine

shovelled manure and boiled tripe

for the boarded dogs

while their owners went to Tenerife

or the Canary Islands.

She learned to ride horses

cross-country and show jumping

worked her way up the competitive ladder

while the girls she was at school with

drove their own cars and left their horses

for her to rub down and clean tack.

And when her mother died

married a man her father's age.

Saturday, 11 April 2026

11th April 2026

new lists

things to tidy, declutter

another box gone

Not a Suicide

She was twenty-eight years old

when she threw herself off a bridge

onto the A90 in Dundee

and was struck by multiple vehicles

Not a suicide

the last chance to escape

after running up there

chased by her husband of two years

who tried to grab her hands.

Not a suicide

abused and beaten

for the last eighteen months

in private

in public

strangled

dragged by the hair

shouted at and punched.

Not a suicide

she would cower and stay silent

made to walk home

after he tried to run her over

Not a suicide

she was terrified of him

but couldn't leave

because he'd kill himself

she messaged her sister

what could she do?

Not a suicide

he was convicted

'culpable homicide' the judge said

but he got just eight years

(to serve at least three)

and three years post-release probation.

Not a suicide

she should have killed him

and saved the two young boys

he raped the following year.

but you need to know

it was Not a suicide

Man jailed for killing abused wife who jumped from bridge