When the Dogs Bite

Thursday, 16 July 2026

16th July 2026

bumble bee

climbing across my fingers

looking for food

Hissing Gate

there was a kissing gate

between the Anglican St Lawrence's

and the long, overgrown walkway

to the Catholic St Mary's.

It was not for kissing:

no fornication on church grounds

because God is always watching

and probably filming, too.

Nor was it to stop livestock escaping

through carelessly open gates

for the dogs could slip through it

and the cows had a different god.

It was there because the Revd. James

was a spiteful old bugger

and installed it to stop Father Timothy

from cycling through the churchyard.

Wednesday, 15 July 2026

15th July 2026

early training

but the academy is closed

Tesco shop

Drury Lane Motors

I don't know the Muffin man

but his phone number was in the book

This was the seventies

where phone numbers came in free tomes

that would start a year's fires.

I asked for four muffins

for my mother's birthday

and he told me to try the supermarket

because he was car mechanic.

Tuesday, 14 July 2026

14th July 2026

Walton Dam

Dog walking with a friend

It seems I have one!

Romantic Frisson

night sky

awash with pinpricks of light

after the evening glow has faded

and a shower of streaking meteors

as the space station falls.

At seventeen minutes to midnight

a child comes into the world

under the zodiac sign of Starlink.

Monday, 13 July 2026

13th July 2026

rewatching horror movies

after reading the explanation

quite rewarding

On Following the advice of Nursery Rhymes

who the fuck

sets a baby's cradle

at the top of a tree?

Oh! You thought it would send him to sleep?

It's blowing a fucking gale

no wonder he's crying.

And now there's some fucking Gremlin

sawing away at the branch

like it's lumberjack day at the funny farm.

Oh look! He's fallen

through the roof of the greenhouse

like a tiny Rod Hull.

At least the branch will give you planks

to make a tiny coffin.

I bet you're an antivaccer.

I'm calling Social Services

Sunday, 12 July 2026

12th July 2026

watching Hellraiser

women with 80s hair

real horror

Bluebirds

someone I don't know

made entirely of wasted semen

claimed I looked like Rod Hull

Maybe it was a complement

maybe it was supposed to be insulting

but it was in interesting take.

So I filmed myself with my hand

rammed up a demon's arse

because I don't have a male bird

Because if I was Rod Hull

I would have instead

a massive blue cock

Saturday, 11 July 2026

11th July 2026

baking powder

and cold porridge

dietary aid

American Sonnet

I think of you, and with my blade I dig

into your eyes (but still avoid the brain)

for I would have you suffer for your double gig

as money-grabbing president again.

I want to flay the flesh from living bones

reminding you of selfish policies

that reap rewards for you and you alone

and highlight your hypocrisies.

Then bleed thee dry, the way you have the land

and folk who trusted you with power

and find themselves with empty hand

while you increase your fortunes by the hour.

But I, of course, will do none of these things

for thoughts are legal, still, for commoners and kings.

Friday, 10 July 2026

10th July 2026

cut potato

sprinkled with salt.

saucepan cleaner

Would you Dance with a Stranger?

Ruth Ellis was hanged at Holloway Prison

the last woman legally executed her

for killing her lover David Blakely.

It's taken seventy years

for her death sentence to be commuted

to life imprisonment.

Too little, too late,

but the Men of the Judicial System

deemed that Domestic Violence

was a man's right to inflict

and a woman's duty to accept.

Ruth Ellis said no,

and after another miscarriage

from being punched in the stomach,

she made a stand.

She should have been lauded

but the men executed her instead.

Hanged in 1955