Thursday 31 March 2016

short forms 31st March 2016

moments
left for hoping
the indecision of
a parent wanting the best for
his kid


© Rachel Green 2016

frosty morning
waiting for a taxi
the vapour cloud as she smiles


© Rachel Green 2016

three dogs
all scratching
we spot fleas
Luckily I have treatment
already purchased.


© Rachel Green 2016

swapping a door
from opening right
to left

not too difficult
and I get it spot-on
first time

warped frame


© Rachel Green 2016

she suffers bad dreams. Shower scrubs.

© Rachel Green 2016

Wednesday 30 March 2016

short forms 30th March 2016

her blood
on the toilet
menstruation in one
unexpected flood of surprise
school class


© Rachel Green 2016

great tit
examines the plum tree
pruning required


© Rachel Green 2016

edits
for a novella
rewriting
a change of viewpoint
for the first chapter


© Rachel Green 2016

indian food
I regret the decision
to partake

all night
headaches and bad dreams
driving in reverse

flu prevention


© Rachel Green 2016

attempting to write again. forgotten skill.

© Rachel Green 2016

Tuesday 29 March 2016

short forms 29th March 2016

no dream
as detailed
as the one she's living;
a descent into the madness
of graves


© Rachel Green 2016

foraging
among the leaves
a blackbird


© Rachel Green 2016

easing the pain
an aching back
and headache
I leave the day's job
for Wednesday


© Rachel Green 2016

tempted
to skip writing
morning poetry

but there's a slippery slope
which leads to not writing
anything at all

too many thoughts lost


© Rachel Green 2016

temple bells to signal her solitude

© Rachel Green 2016

Monday 28 March 2016

short forms 28th March 2016

blood loss
leads to coma
she dreamed it all away
then woke up to a new nightmare.
Bullies.


© Rachel Green 2016

white-out
the cat runs for cover
hailstorm


© Rachel Green 2016

remembering
pictures from child hood
mature orchard
morning shadows
wood pigeons


© Rachel Green 2016

assembling
his new wardrobe
aching back

white furniture
black desk
peaceful

his room looks great


© Rachel Green 2016

overslept. Her jaw aches from yawning

© Rachel Green 2016

Sunday 27 March 2016

short forms 27th March 2016

rainbows
decorate the house
cheerful ideas
not always popular with the
neighbours


© Rachel Green 2016

wind swept
horizontal rain
galloping dog


© Rachel Green 2016

another day
building furniture
this time a wardrobe
not sure there's room
but we'll try our bestest


© Rachel Green 2016

Easter Sunday
a less-than-silent house
the loin-fruit out gaming

adults
making noise
behind bedroom doors

the dog howls


© Rachel Green 2016

quirky undertaker humour. Skeletal hand coathooks.

© Rachel Green 2016

Saturday 26 March 2016

short forms 26th March 2016

her dog
dead to the world
and buried in the woods.
How she wishes he could come back
to life


© Rachel Green 2016

cold wind
brings colour to the street
discarded foil


© Rachel Green 2016

child
cleans her room
dirty crocks
Enough up there to
auction on eBay


© Rachel Green 2016

Good Ol' North Carolina
setting the clock back
forty-plus years

with such anti GSD success
maybe they'll bring back hanging
and segregation

good job there's no native  people left


© Rachel Green 2016

upholstering a desk top. blood blister.

© Rachel Green 2016

Friday 25 March 2016

short forms 25th March 2016

Chloe
changes her name
non gender specific
they're a non-binary person.
Deal.


© Rachel Green 2016

daffodils
the heralds of spring
decorated graves


© Rachel Green 2016

Tesco's apples
no longer good value
three for a pound
You wouldn't pay that price
on a market stall.


© Rachel Green 2016

North Carolina
passes anti-trans laws
discrimination

colour me pink
but why is that different
to Russia's anti-gay laws?

"it's all about religious freedom"


© Rachel Green 2016

credit cards without honourifics. Small victory.

© Rachel Green 2016

Thursday 24 March 2016

short forms 24th March 2016

one hand
to make bargains
spots of blood to seal
a shortened lifespan of ten years;
payment


© Rachel Green 2016

birdsong
among the bare branches
blossom


© Rachel Green 2016

Colin
bossy visitor
just wants to play
He takes exception to DK
poops in his office


© Rachel Green 2016

hospital visit
CT scan and neck-doppler
results clear

more scans to follow
CAT and bloods
follow-up later on

at least I can drive again


© Rachel Green 2016

the memories of tales. leon garfield .

© Rachel Green 2016

Wednesday 23 March 2016

short forms 23rd March 2016

mirrors
reflect the truth
but she doesn't hang them
faded wallpaper gives away
secrets


© Rachel Green 2016

whitethorn
a herald of spring
quince blossom


© Rachel Green 2016

cemetery squirrel
spotted by OCD Amos
refuses to leave
But it was right there!
It can't have moved, can it?


© Rachel Green 2016

Colin
visiting Scottie
interrupts the pecking order

joins in with the others
plays with Jack
comes indoors to pee

beats Amos to Jack's leftovers


© Rachel Green 2016

damp sheets. she sweats into anxiety

© Rachel Green 2016

Tuesday 22 March 2016

short forms 22nd March 2016

open
box of delights
anything you wish for
available -- low, low prices.
One soul


© Rachel Green 2016

first leaves
on the branches of a hazel bush
a robin sings


© Rachel Green 2016

daughter's dog
but she has no time for him
busy working
he becomes the fourth
in my personal pack


© Rachel Green 2016

melancholia
the passion of life
atrophied

I have become maudlin
introspectively examining life
before death

blood thinners


© Rachel Green 2016

bags of peanuts decorated with skulls

© Rachel Green 2016

Monday 21 March 2016

short forms 21st March 2016

her wish
is redacted
immortal soul, shriven;
returned only slightly soiled.
Rescue


© Rachel Green 2016

scaffolding work
a pigeon flies from the room
fallen tiles


© Rachel Green 2016

house for sale
multiple occupants
one failed relationship
offers invited
in lieu of a new roof


© Rachel Green 2016

the ban
on lifting and working
doesn't extend to writing

but the worry
and the anxiety does
block the processes

a fear of edits


© Rachel Green 2016

morning tears before anyone else wakes

© Rachel Green 2016

Sunday 20 March 2016

short forms 20th March 2016

bathroom
blood spattered tiles
she cuts her wrist open
on the disposable razor
blunt blade


© Rachel Green 2016

crow's scold
from the pre-dawn garden
the cat


© Rachel Green 2016

rainbows
from glass prisms
decorate the study
the cheerful pendulum motion
pleases


© Rachel Green 2016

discussions
around the dinner table
about death

I have a great idea
if you installed 'boomerang'
for google mail

delayed suicide note


© Rachel Green 2016

and all will be well. Hopefully.

© Rachel Green 2016

Saturday 19 March 2016

short forms 19th March 2016

TV
her father's face
looking quite concerned
breaking the fourth wall of the screen.
Darling?


© Rachel Green 2016

pigeons
congregating on ridge tiles
two crows


© Rachel Green 2016

online gaming
occupies my time
when I can't write
I avoid other players
online socialphobic


© Rachel Green 2016

busy family
off to lay carpets
for a friend

and decorate
and hang wallpaper
curtain poles

moving day tomorrow


© Rachel Green 2016

Stroke symptoms. Walking for her medications.

© Rachel Green 2016

Friday 18 March 2016

short forms, March 18th 2016

algae
from the park pond
floating in bathwater
muddy shoes, a scented candle
gas leak


© Rachel Green 2016

red blooms
amongst winter-dry leaves
crisp packets


© Rachel Green 2016

his snores
wake me from sleep
soothing
contented grunts
reminiscent of an old dog


© Rachel Green 2016

daily task
of writing poems
no-one will see

a discipline I didn't lose
when all my other writing
deserted me

rubbish now, of course


© Rachel Green 2016

she writes meta-poetry, just badly

© Rachel Green 2016

Thursday 17 March 2016

short forms 17th March 2016

noises
from the cellar
where her dad is buried
she doesn't believe in undeath
does she?


© Rachel Green 2016

first light
the cries of a lone crow
doppler shift


© Rachel Green 2016

last moment
of wakefulness
before sleep
a face at the window
two stories up


© Rachel Green 2016

new vacuum
to replace the one I bought
in January

It can't cope with the hair
from new dog Amos
filter always clogged

repeated emptying


© Rachel Green 2016

she wants to recover. aching face.

© Rachel Green 2016

Wednesday 16 March 2016

short forms 16th March 2016

comics
her favourite
genre to read stories.
If only she could draw herself.
Blood Pact


© Rachel Green 2016

piecing scream
from the night street
mating foxes


© Rachel Green 2016

lost
old photographs
online
an hour passes like nothing
world history


© Rachel Green 2016

a day
without symptoms
or face ache

perhaps
a recovery
from the TIA?

I stub my toes


© Rachel Green 2016

Kickstarter funding. My bank card declined.

© Rachel Green 2016

Tuesday 15 March 2016

short forms 12th March 2016

self taught
architecture
at fifteen years old
she designs a tower block made
of bones


© Rachel Green 2016

wild garlic
provides fresh salad leaves
hawthorn bush


© Rachel Green 2016

date night
cinema trip to see
'The Witch'
Rarely am I so moved
to write an IMDB review


© Rachel Green 2016

statins
and aspirin
to reduce the risk

four weeks supply
to keep me going
until the stroke clinic

now I've run out...


© Rachel Green 2016

the guilt she feels for laziness

© Rachel Green 2016

Monday 14 March 2016

short forms 14th March 2016

new dad
black as old tar
surprises her teacher
"I thought your father was British?"
He is.


© Rachel Green 2016

cold wind
through the broken window
woman with santa hat


© Rachel Green 2016

disturbed night
the anxiety dreams
of illness
I have no fear of death
but don't want to be disabled


© Rachel Green 2016

I did too much
leading to shaky hands
and overheated fever

a couple of hours
lying on the sofa
sleeping fitfully

feeling better


© Rachel Green 2016

how long before the lemon rots?

© Rachel Green 2016

Sunday 13 March 2016

short forms 13th March 2016

losing
her father at
the age of just fifteen.
How to stop Social Services
step in


© Rachel Green 2016

glorious weather
I tread dogshit through the house


© Rachel Green 2016

opticians
results positive
no eye damage
my eyesight no worse
than two years ago


© Rachel Green 2016

Lu and Aimee
decorating the office
into the night

I can't help
due to Doctor's orders
(no lifting)

the beauty of white walls


© Rachel Green 2016

Painting the office desk. Fuzzy Head.

© Rachel Green 2016

Saturday 12 March 2016

short forms 12th March 2016


dismal
Gran's funeral
attended by her dad
and the man who did her garden
flowers


© Rachel Green 2016

bare willow
peering through the window
great tit


© Rachel Green 2016

post-TIA
I walk into town
opticians
I fret about the pressure
behind my left eye


© Rachel Green 2016

DK away
speaking at a conference
Pink Therapy

his office stripped
walls painted
flooring laid

I paint his new desk


© Rachel Green 2016

End-of-cereal milk. Crying dog.

© Rachel Green 2016

Friday 11 March 2016

short forms 11th March 2016

young girl
proud to be Black
has Caucasian father
further complications arise:
his death


© Rachel Green 2016

muddy path
through rain swept woodland
a magpie


© Rachel Green 2016

the cat
has taken to my windowsill
still hates me
sleeping next to my desk
with one claw open


© Rachel Green 2016

all I had
was a banana
now I feel sick

head pressure
soreness
tinnitus

no stroke indicators, though


© Rachel Green 2016

seventies TV. she wants to write

© Rachel Green 2016

Thursday 10 March 2016

short forms 10th March 2016

her gran
an old lady
who died in her bedroom.
Her best friend Bernie at the wake
trans guy


© Rachel Green 2016

willow twigs
yellow against the grey sky
Great tits


© Rachel Green 2016

Aspirin
to thin the blood;
reduce the risk.
the surprise I feel
when I swallow dispersible


© Rachel Green 2016

new dog
thrust into a brace
of jack russells

a month of growling
as the jocky for position
minor squabbles

old dog; new blood


© Rachel Green 2016

sympathetic doctor. New medicine for pain.

© Rachel Green 2016

Wednesday 9 March 2016

short forms 9th March 2016

process
developed plot
she's not from Birmingham
but from a village in Cornwall
scandal


© Rachel Green 2016

drooling sky
the wind shakes the rain
from bare branches


© Rachel Green 2016

print-out
possible stroke symptoms
doctor's visit
perhaps at some point
I will be well again


© Rachel Green 2016

my review of 'The Bone Clocks'
will make me no friends
despite my praise

I loved parts of it --
two-fifths by page count --
found the rest turgid

off-screen deaths


© Rachel Green 2016

her plot developments promote renewed enthusiasm

© Rachel Green 2016

Tuesday 8 March 2016

short forms 8th March 2016

black girl
looks overweight
but feels just fine with it
her best friend is white and slender
demon


© Rachel Green 2016

blue tit
checking the mahonia
loose twigs


© Rachel Green 2016

new dogs
plays with my feet
bites my toes
he still shows no interest
in inanimate toys


© Rachel Green 2016

pizza treat
provided by DK
delicious

this morning
the head pressure so strong
I can barely read

no more fast food for me


© Rachel Green 2016

Man creates Gods in his image

© Rachel Green 2016

Monday 7 March 2016

Poem 027/2016

False Spring

afternoon sunlight
glints on a fan of telephone wires
escaping a pole
on the other side of the road.
Two wires become white
against the pale, cold blue of the sky
while the rest
become the skeleton
of a faded umbrella.
One wire hangs limp;
an oscillating wave
against reflected window-sky.

Angela had eyes the colour of that sky
and wires connecting her jaw to her skull
and her smile never seemed quite the same
after she was jumped by four lads
who thought she was a refugee
and didn't hear the Brummie accent
when she begged them to stop kicking her.

short forms 7th March 2016

moving
from Birmingham
to a white middle-class,
middle-aged town in Dorset called
Snoresville


© Rachel Green 2016

morning sun
the cat basks on the windowsill


© Rachel Green 2016

google cardboard
taking 360° photographs
with my phone
Sharing the experience of dogwalking
with my other puppies


© Rachel Green 2016

a desire
to paint again
comes at a price

I need space
and chunks of money
for paint and canvas

and the tolerance of peers


© Rachel Green 2016

Sunday night drama. Favourite holiday spot.

© Rachel Green 2016

Sunday 6 March 2016

short forms 6th March 2016

Chloe
a slice of life
of a depressed teen girl
eating to forget she's become
so fat


© Rachel Green 2016

strange cat
in the front garden
ours hides


© Rachel Green 2016

lemon water
a pint thereof between
cups of tea
An easy way to get me drinking
thirty pints of water a day


© Rachel Green 2016

post-shower
I realise I'm not in pain
first time in a fortnight

now my jaw aches
and my left eye
feels 'bulgy'

I shouldn't have thought it


© Rachel Green 2016

meal out. I skip the fries.

© Rachel Green 2016

Saturday 5 March 2016

short forms 5th March 2016

boyfriend
egging her on
to commit suicide
one demon to another: it's
not on


© Rachel Green 2016

figures
in a landscape
painted mannequins


© Rachel Green 2016

vertical splits
in my fingernails
shattered keratin
the nail beds become sore
from exposure


© Rachel Green 2016

tying in canes
making a fence
living willow

not sure it's worth the effort
moving house next year
so what's the point?

maybe just cut it down


© Rachel Green 2016

flecks of skin peel from fingers

© Rachel Green 2016

Friday 4 March 2016

short forms 4th March 2016

she wants
to be female
without the skirts and the
condescending misogyny.
No chance.


© Rachel Green 2016

purple crocus
exclamations of spring
drifting snowflakes


© Rachel Green 2016

striding along
a barrel of a man
with a bullet head
the small boy half-running
emphasises the disparity


© Rachel Green 2016

apples
wrapped in plastic
turning rotten

tempted to get paint
and canvas six feet high
blooms of colour

decomposition art


© Rachel Green 2016

abstraction. maggot patterns on a corpse

© Rachel Green 2016

Thursday 3 March 2016

short forms 3rd March 2016

stories
don't have to start
at the beginning bit.
Better to dive in the deep end
than drown


© Rachel Green 2016

sunshine
the lace edging of frosty leaves


© Rachel Green 2016

house clearance
ripping DK's CDs
to MP3
Another piece of furniture
will soon be gone


© Rachel Green 2016

pale face
my whole skull aches
fatigue?
or a warning
a foretelling
of another mini-stroke?

sleep easy. old girl


© Rachel Green 2016

Vexation. The accumulation of dog hair.

© Rachel Green 2016

Wednesday 2 March 2016

short forms 2nd March 2016

Jenny
used to be cool
until Chloe was depressed
and put on all the heaviness.
Dead mom.


© Rachel Green 2016

morning rain
the steady hiss through the window
traffic


© Rachel Green 2016

daughter's first early shift
I listen to her rant
at 9 AM
even in the best of jobs
people can be a-holes


© Rachel Green 2016

dog
stares at me
wags his tail

I can't resist him
when he rolls over
I tichle his tummy

hyper-excited mutt


© Rachel Green 2016

waking up with a headache. Why?

© Rachel Green 2016

Tuesday 1 March 2016

The Tao of Tea

The Tao of Tea

A porcelain mug with cats printed
against a red background. Meow.
Meow printed in funky letters. Only
English-language cats say meow.

It holds tea. Three-quarters empty
with brown rings on the inside
denoting the volume of each previous swallow.
The delicacy of tannin.

It used to hold coffee,
back when I worked for the DSS
before it became the Benefits Agency
and I had my breakdown.

I didn't use it for years
fearful of the associations it brought;
of the mind-numbing terror
visited on me by other staff.

Now it holds my tea
and while I remember the fear
it holds a little less power now;
less than the pull of tea.

short forms 1st March 2016

fighting
she takes the blame
rather than have the head
phone her father to make complaints.
Secrets.


© Rachel Green 2016

steady rain
blowing down the road
plastic sheets


© Rachel Green 2016

phantom toothache
moves from left to right
upper jaw
I just hope it's not a precursor
another TIA?


© Rachel Green 2016

good intentions
battle with lethargy
and depression

I want to start writing
but the apathy
is underwhelming

maybe tomorrow


© Rachel Green 2016

looking after the invalid. Head pressure.

© Rachel Green 2016