When the Dogs Bite

Saturday, 4 July 2026

4th July 2026

Independence Day

American celebrates despite Trump

Not our monkey.

I'm glad the new movie has been rated R

and won't have a horde of kiddies

there are plenty of sanitised versions so far

that are safe for the moaning old biddies.

Historical fiction is never as groovy

as Disney would tell it, I fear.

I know that you watch all those Christian movies

at Christmas time every year.

A film of the Bible would be brutal as fuck

with Adam off raping the sheep

and Lilith, whom God made from blood, shit and muck,

was destroyed when she made the man weep.

God's kids are thrown out without any possessions

to fend for themselves in the land

because they desired to be free of obsession

and no longer be pets in His hand.

Friday, 3 July 2026

3rd July 2026

quel surprise!

The man who sang "Do You Wanna Touch Me?"

charged with sex crimes

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2lywez0zddo

Bless me, Daddy, for I have Sin'd

and also performed some Cos and Tan

and calculated velocity of the wind

so please resolve me, if You can.

For I have seen how angels fly

with hollow bones and wings of steel

attacking those who wail and cry

while bodies burn and faces peel.

And I have heard the devil's voice

speak from behind a ring of men

compelling folk to make the choice

to pledge their life to Trump. Amen.

Thursday, 2 July 2026

2nd July 2026

plumbing pieces

the connector never fits

thirty quid and counting

Ode to a Living Ammonite

How many people do you impact every day,

whose life would alter if not for you?

Punching tickets, stocking shelves

working in the bottle plant;

what you touch

touches hundreds

perhaps thousands

and the art you made,

or the trash you left behind

will touch lives for years to come;

perhaps thousands.

You matter more than you think you do.

Your life touches millions.

Wednesday, 1 July 2026

1st July 2026

shower time

but there's something missing

no water

I was sixteen when I attended my first concert;

Thin Lizzy at Stafford Park

paid for by the bloke

who took Sue and I dog training.

He hadn't expected me

and thought he was on a date

but Mum had just died

and Sue wanted to lift my spirits.

To be fair, he thought it was a date

and she wanted me to dissuade him

from any 'funny business'

I wish I could remember his name

but he had a mini with an 8-track;

played the Beatles over and over

and I, too, wanted to be a paperback writer.

Tuesday, 30 June 2026

30th June 2026

Morrison's shop

All the fridges have broken down

a Cook with no ham

Routines

we took turns on Sundays;

one of us would make breakfast

while the other slept in until ten

or else wake to the bells of the church

at the edge of the common.

We'd listen to The Archers

omnibus edition on Radio Four

which he'd followed for twenty years

and I barely tolerated.

Shouting began on the closing music

then afterwards

a visit to the parent's

or maybe A&E.

Monday, 29 June 2026

29th June 2026

evening mowing

the dog appreciates it

clean toilet

Have You Tried Not Assuming?

I am not single

no matter what you think

and what you assume from my profile.

I'm not straight

nor sis

nor young

nor available

nor interested.

men assume interest

that a comment I make on a public forum

must be personal,

intimate,

inviting.

It is not.

Sunday, 28 June 2026

28th June 2026

waste ground

teeming with butterflies

buddleias

Peas

my mother sits on the front step

shelling peas in the sunshine,

the green-painted, half-paned door

open to create a draught.

Two dogs at her feet;

and old whippet and a lab cross;

middle aged and fat,

spreading onto an old rug

like honey melting under heat.

She smiles at the camera;

her skirt full of fresh-picked pods,

the colander between her knees,

and a washing up bowl at her side,

where she throws empty pods for compost.

I steal a fresh pod from her

it is full of pea-moth maggots.