When the Dogs Bite

Thursday, 22 January 2026

22nd January 2026

paying for collection

saves a tedious post office trip

waiting in for hours

Without Remorse

If Amanda Wixon could only hold her still

the records of abuse would not be so compiled,

for she claims the victim not a slave until

the police had found the child she so reviled.

The unnamed victim, daughter of Amanda's friend

was taken in to live at just sixteen

to assist Amanda with her need to tend

her children whom the schools had never seen.

And though this sounds like cinematic plot

of Maga folk in isolated farms

this happened in a house in Tewkesbury, Glos.

and failed to trip authorities' alarms.

A quarter of a century of slaving

Amanda out on bail for money saving.

Wednesday, 21 January 2026

21st January 2026

day's workshop

teaching self defence to women

cancelled 'cause I'm trans.

Badges for BP

Put not wet cardboard in your green bin

for the fibres break too much to be recycled

put it with your landfill trash and begin

in respect of that to which you are entitled.

Now strip away those horrid bits of sticky

they gum up our machines and make them stop

and we think an oily pizza box is icky

just recycle bits without the slop.

And most of all, please wash out all your empties

we don't want to see baked beans inside the tin

foetid milk arrives here in the plenty.

so "rinse it out" is our phrase for the win.

This is the world out children will inherit

your carbon footprint earns you a demerit.

Tuesday, 20 January 2026

20th January 2026

warm bed

and no alarm set

insistent dogs

Canalside Garden

My father knew the value of a compost heap

but rarely did he utilise that great resource

for although every piece of kitchen waste would reap

compost that was enrichened by the droppings of the horse.

Right next to the compost mound he kept a pile

of orchard twigs and logs cut from his dozen fruitful trees

when overgrowth might force the trimming for a while

to get his Mountfield mower through their knees.

And once a month he disregarded neighbour's washing lines

and set alight the pile of twigs and leaf

along with all the rubbish he could gather on the tines

to keep his dustbin light for men to heave.

The ashes from the Aga stove collected in a pail

lined the garden paths through which he daily would travail.

Monday, 19 January 2026

19th January 2026

unexpected bonus

an hour of assistant teaching

armless jiujitsu

There isn't a title

Let me advocate a moment for the dark

for while the liberties of some are pressed

under the booted dictatorial mark

of a despot tyrant king. The insurrectionist

has rights under the powers that guide his fate

at least to live and eat and shit in peace

while plots are drawn up to create

a different view of how regimes might cease.

Are we so sure that history will judge the Right

as Fascist turds to be so overthrown

Is Donald Trump a Palpatine to fight

and beat? He'll just come back again.

And even while Gestapo swarm the town

at least he ignites hatred of his crown.

Sunday, 18 January 2026

18th January 2026

actual butter

a childhood luxury

birthday gifts

King Donnie's Coronation Speech 2028

There were no gay people in America

and no native people before Columbus

Black Americans never had a struggle, yeah?

and slavery was good. No need to fuss.

It didn't happen anyway: a tale

the liberals told; diverts us from the truth

that True Americans are rightly pale

and we could learn from Russian youth,

that Christian folk are always in the Right

except we need the Bible newly writ

to take out all the jews and set the world alight

that God declared America a hit.

Our Constitution was mistranscribed, you see,

for I am President in perpetuity.

Saturday, 17 January 2026

17th January 2026

boiling water

in a fourteen-inch wok

dead kettle

On Weaponising Terror

Dost thou ever sense a presence yet unseen

that thou doth find disturbing to the mind

perhaps in devout prayer thy insight keen

to probe the supernatural in kind.

For all those tales thou heard while still a youth

of monsters in the shadows of the land

have their origin in bleakest truth

and needed nothing more than willing hand.

The vampire that rose from bloodied tomb

was a woman buried days before her death

the witch who snatched thy baby from thy womb

an elder mother with a baby drawing breath.

By far the greatest monster in the world

are the men become what arrogance unfurled.

Friday, 16 January 2026

16th January 2025

one of these days

I'm going to run amok with an axe

free food and bedroom.

On The Nature of Love

There are a favoured few that come to mind,

when thou doth ask me what love be about

it seems to me a constant quest to find,

those special folk in life of worth to shout.

A spotty, ginger youth closed off my heart

for fear of the rejection it would hatch;

but left me be my free authentic art

and care not if Madame Fate would deal a match.

As I matured I found love in my sight,

with the maladjusted hagfish of a creature,

and yet I gave a portion of my right,

to self possession as a loving teacher.

In later years I found that love be leisure,

not to give or take, but both in equal measure.