Haiga - Twilight

The Teamaker

Dead five years this coming spring
he still remembers tea
grinding acrid leaves in pots
just like he showed to me
Steeped with the hours upon the rim
of coal-fired Aga stove,
a brew to stand your spoon up in
and watch it soon dissolve.
Is that sound a burglar rattling
the hinges on the door?
Or the ghost of Uncle Frederick
making tea at four?

Wetland Field Dogs

One dog excited - dashing about
another happy to just mooch
the third cries, wanting to go on
Stillness, I.

for One Single Impression: Movement

Fading Memories

Fading Memories

I remember my mother –
red-haired and five foot two
in her stockings.
Holding a bunch of roses
in front of gaily patterned
seventies wallpaper
she smiles at the camera,
pleased with the First, Second, Third
rosettes from the local flower show.

The roses are gone now
bulldozed to make way for a new road
when my father died,
but they live on
in a faded photograph
and my swiftly fading
memories.

Never Trust a Demon.

Never Trust a Demon.


“Give me a skin,” the demon said
“With a stylish body and a fancy head.
And in return I’ll grant a wish:
Whatever you like from a car to a fish.”

So I laboured for days with bodies and knives
on a bench that I borrowed from Frankenstein
and put it together with stitches and glue
till the suit that I made looked a lot like you.

I gave it the demon and he acted pleased
up ‘til I said “Can I have my wish, please?”
when he offered me one of his Paddington stares
and said, with a passable baleful glare:

“No.”

Winter's Day

Frost laden brushes
paint magical pictures
on winter glass

for One Single Impression prompt 43: A Winter's Day

Welcome

Welcome

They welcome her, these slithy ghosts
with promises and candied peel
and when she tries to take her leave
discovers that there is no deal
between the living and the passed
but that which makes her lose her head
for which the ghosts all hunger for
unless she has a plan instead.

Using prompt 'Welcoming' from One Single Impression