When the Dogs Bite

Friday, 1 May 2026

1st May 2026

Beltane

the first day of summer

garden clearing

Sudden Growth

morning clouds

pulled away from stars.

sun rising as the moon

fades into the blue

the relief of waking

and the agony of aching joints

hot shower easing

stiffened shoulders, twisted hips

side sleeping to run from terrors

old companions from my youth

unaged in all these years.

Why do they still haunt

the corridors of dreaming sleep

I let them fall

because they treated folk

as Christians do:

judgement and condemnation.

we are all square pegs

but our corners are compassion

and vulnerability

only when we shave them away

do were become the followers

of a hateful god

listen! What can I be,

but who I purport to be

Once, I wanted the respect

of a man who wore robes to work

and professed to be Good

Good lies rotting in a shallow grave

three shots point blank by an Iceman

who was cleared of murder/

She'd smiled at him

in a disrespectful manner.

And under the clear blue sky

a smallpox microbe escapes.

Thursday, 30 April 2026

30th April 2026

dandelion seeds

sailing on a breeze's back

welcoming lawn

Ann, at Eighty

she doesn't eat meat

unless she knows the source

and it's fresh-kill.

Deer from the local park

shot and dressed by the gamekeeper

skinned at home by her daughter.

Rabbits and pheasants

this time from the farmer

along with still-bleeding chickens.

Her husband, eighty-four,

shot a pigeon yesterday

they had it fried in butter.

You must think we're awful, she says

and I say not at all

my vegetarianism is a luxury.

Wednesday, 29 April 2026

29th April 2026

morning minimart

posting the package I eBayed

a pound richer

Reform UK (Wales)

He's an old white fella

who say's he's not racist

he just doesn't want not-whites

to cross the Welsh border.

It's not racism

to reject immigrants

and tourists

and refugees

and people under threat of death

from Poland, Hungary, Africa, America

because they'll be a Welcome in the Hillsides

if they're at least millionaires

and there's Welcome in the Valleys

if they're also white.

Tuesday, 28 April 2026

28th April 2026

exposed worms

as I lift the winter covers

gathered bounty

Insomniac

an argument

about wrapping paper

saved 'just in case'

someone gives him a belated gift

and he has to give one back.

in a corner

between the wall and the window

he is curled inside a sheet

waiting for the change to come;

a metamorphosis

into a better human being.

I speak to him kindly;

'better' is subjective'

and we love you

just as you are.

Monday, 27 April 2026

27th April 2026

solar fountain

only works a noontime

meditation postponed

The Lady at Ninety-Six

older than God but still sprightly

she spots me walking past

from behind her net curtains

rushes out to catch me mid-stride

with an apple tree I've just bought.

"Is that a marijuana plants?" she asks

and I laugh and tell her truths

but it was just a conversation starter

because what she wants to tell me is about the house

two doors down from the corner shop

whom the police raided last week

and arrested everyone for possession

crates of heroin and cocaine

and their garden backs onto hers:

that's why the door is boarded up.

Actually, it happened weeks ago

on a Wednesday as I walked the dogs

and noticed one of the police vans

kitted out inside like a coffee lounge.

Sunday, 26 April 2026

26th April 2026

years of detritus

built up around the greenhouse

filthy woman

Postponed Dinner.

shots fired!

five outside the door, all blanks;

a test for the security services

and a great opportunity for deflection.

We won't talk about bombing civilians

of that he was engaged in sex trafficking

and was a major player in a paedophile ring

but instead how he needs a new ballroom

with a bomb shelter bunker below it.

The 'shooter' apprehended, but kept hidden

just another cog in the media machine.

And while we're here let's sell you

on the New Trump School for Young Ladies

and the line of erotic schoolgirl clothes

for heterosexual men who fantasise

about raping other people's kids.

Saturday, 25 April 2026

25th April 2026

evening fire

finally burning conifer stumps

from two years ago

Fountain

I would have given a bad review

a solar-powered fountain

In England.

In March.

Where the rain came down in sheets

and the only time you saw the sun

was watching Lucifer

live from Florida.

I persevered, though,

and come late April

we had an early summer

and the fountain worked.

A moral to this tiny tale

if I'm permitted to make a point

is that teenage neighbours

are fucking loud in the garden.*

*fucking as adjective, not verb