27th July 2026

 

fat free yoghurt

With a spoonful of red jam

stomach ache

© Rachel Green July 2026

I’m offered a free costume

to try out and review

an adult pirate's costume.

It might be okay for kids

to dress up as the bad guys:

I've seen young Darth Vaders,

vampires, werewolves;

supervillains were the rage when I was a kid:

Harley Quinn, The Joker and so on,

but as an adult? No.

There's nothing romantic about pirates:

bloodthirsty bastards who would cut your throat

for the small change in your pocket.

If I wanted to be a pirate

I'd just wait outside Sainsburys

and stab the first person with a full trolley

and take off in their Volvo estate.

© Rachel Green July 2026

26th July 2026

 

morning rain

unnoticed and brief

gone with the sun

© Rachel Green July 2026

Fly Trap

my old one died; 

the fan sucking in the nightcrawlers;

the gnats and mosquitoes--

clattering to wake the dead.

thus another

this one cheap enough

but without the sucking fan

and woke me in the night

with BANG! CRACKLE! HISS! BANG!

and the stink of burning carapace

until the dogs ran in terror

while I thought the local substation had exploded

and the house would catch fire.

I sent it back. Please

may I have a refund?

© Rachel Green July 2026

25th July 2026

 

loud crackles

and the stink of burning insect

terrified dogs

© Rachel Green July 2026

Poison Garden

I still grow nightshade;

hemlock, monk's hood -- 

though my angel toadstools never grew

and I pull out the ivy before the dogs lie.

My cuckoo pints are spreading slowly

ladies in the spring, red shirted soldiers in the autumn

and my scattered seeds of foxgloves

are beloved by the bees.

© Rachel Green July 2026

24th July 2026

 

grassy field

mown by council tractor

slaughtered mice

© Rachel Green July 2026

Trumpet Count

one for the lesions

two for the  pain

three to lose a life

four to gain.

five for hunger

six for worth

seven for a charnel house

dug from the earth.

eight for the righteous

nine for the proud

ten for the penitent

lost in the crowd.

© Rachel Green July 2026

23rd July 2026

blind girl

treading blood-soaked carpet

her murdered mother

© Rachel Green July 2026

Pale Rider

through fuliginous streets he plots

one hoof, then the next;

it matters not when he gets there

for always his arrival is at the end

when hope has faded and blood

stains the rumpled sheets,

piss and shit attracting flies

who always know that death approaches

before the angels even care.

once, she dreamed of lofty towers

but seems fate had other destinies.

© Rachel Green July 2026

 

22nd July 2026

 

woken at five

by two excited puppers

who sleep all day

© Rachel Green July 2026

Tightly Permed Hair

I tried to foster the relationship

I once had with my mother

but she died when I was a child

but mostly I remember her fur coat

and her tiny hands clutching mine

as she half walked, half dragged me to church

on a Sunday morning

when what I really wanted 

was a bacon sandwich in bed

like she made for my dad.

Perhaps I grew up resenting God

because I was denied bacon.

© Rachel Green July 2026

21st July 2026

 

Widget is confused

at her fresh pint of water

my breakfast dogmeat

© Rachel Green July 2026

Matthew Ponomarenko

killed his son with a baseball bat

hitting him so many times 

there was no head left on his six-year old body

because the voices made him do it.

His family all support him

because they believe in God

and the voices were the devil.

Besides, the kid was autistic

and better off in the ground.

© Rachel Green July 2026