31st August 2026

 

torrential rain

brings welcome relief

sleepless night

© Rachel Green August 2026

he did his best to raise a boy;

a late surprise after two girls

because his Catholic wife

relied on the strength of belief

to avoid unwanted pregnancy.

long hair and dresses

occupied his child's mind;

climbing trees and arranging dolls

in ascending orders of surgical intervention;

and then the mother died

and the restraints of Religion

fell away from both their lives.

despite the love he had

he could not look at his son again

because there was his dead wife's face

and because of the love he had

he just wanted the boy to be happy;

even if the boy was a girl.

© Rachel Green August 2026

30th August 2026

 

Best Bloke

has another birthday

well wishes

© Rachel Green August 2026

Diaper Don

runs the navy into the ground --

not even the sea

because the wages aren't paid

and the marines are jumping ship

because they haven't been fed either

and the showers and toilets are broken;

but sure, Diaper Don,

manipulate the crypto market

to make a few more billion

and another gold toilet.

© Rachel Green August 2026

29th August 2026

 

foraging

too high to reach apples

shop bought instead

© Rachel Green August 2026

in the charity shop

a man buys all the Bibles

before I even see them.

That's a damned shame.

My nan always kept a Bible

in the outside privy

She got them free from the church;

used them for toilet roll.

© Rachel Green August 2026

28th August 2026

 

"Sleepy Joe?"

Why aren't we normalising

"Diaper Don?"

© Rachel Green August 2026

Everyone Knows

Rupert can't act

so what was he to do

but reprise his childhood role;

it's less a question of supporting

a transphobic rhetoric

and more the solution

of Grint being skint.

He's very good

at playing a gormless idiot;

he's a method actor

but that doesn't equate to adult roles;

just teen dramatisation.

© Rachel Green August 2026

27th August 2026

 

glacial collapse

brings floods and terror

eight hundred dead

© Rachel Green August 2026

torrential rain

cleaning all the streets

of summer's debris

leaves and tin cans filling the drains

blocking up sewers pipes,

eroding heat-dried river banks.

Seven Trent Water

realise all the pipes are broken

"Let's raise the price of rain."

© Rachel Green August 2026

26th August 2026

 

empty house

the lad across the road watching

as I hide the key

© Rachel Green August 2026

woodland walk

and it smells of autumn

all the leases are falling early

and the apples are already ripe.

the plums all fell 

devoured by garden wasps

while the garden arums

display their guardsman finery

© Rachel Green August 2026

25th August 2026

when I said 'moobs'

I meant I was depressed,

not man boobs

© Rachel Green August 2026

An Apology

Once again, I have fubar'd;

fucked up your ordered shelves

in the tiny freezer-for-four

because the shopping list

included oven chips and broccoli

and the vegetables drawer

was already full.

So the chips are in the meat drawer

with the chicken and burgers

(and sausages, though they don't count as meat)

and the broccoli

is with the sweet stuff

because everybody loves

to suck on frozen broccoli,

don't they?

© Rachel Green August 2026