When the Dogs Bite

Monday, 4 May 2026

4th May 2026

Cuba

prepares for US invasion

"Disney Franchise Day"

Sinking into Earth

let me die alone

the end of my days

filled with silence and joy;

a garden full of trees

and wild flowers;

my body left where it fell

covered by leaves

and eaten by the teeming life

above the soil and below it.

let me die in old age

but before infirmity overtakes me

surrounded by paintings

and my body left to rot

on a pristine white canvas;

the last art I ever make

arranged by decomposition

and the depredation of maggots.

Let me die speedily,

before I see it coming;

an aneurism, a bullet,

a falling statue thrown by a teenage boy*

whose parents care not at all.

let me greet Death

with my faculties intact

and my lust for life sated.

*Teen kills tourist

Sunday, 3 May 2026

3rd May 2026

drive-by shooting

traditional US greeting

comes to Brixton

Mahogany Veneer

there a reason we call it

'in the closet' and the phrase

'coming out' means exposing your truth

for the world to see.

In England it's the wardrobe

and it's safe and dark

filled with the scent of cedarwood and old pine

and the last traces of grandmother's perfume.

No one cant hurt you in here.

No insults, no condemnation,

no cries of 'kill the poofter'

and threats of beatings from your classmates

as if a good hiding

made anyone normal.

Saturday, 2 May 2026

2nd May 2026

barbeque, anyone?

not, not a garden party:

it's for sale

Chiltern, County Durham

Twelve thousand pound

planting a grassy roundabout

to display the England Cross

Reform councillor Bowron

defends the racist bigotry

as 'merely Patriotism'

and polled local residents first.

Easily done, it turns out,

because all seventy people polled

were already at the Reform meeting

I'm patriotic as fuck

and like Englishmen through the years

when I next visit Chiltern

I'll bring my lawnmower.

Friday, 1 May 2026

1st May 2026

Beltane

the first day of summer

garden clearing

Sudden Growth

morning clouds

pulled away from stars.

sun rising as the moon

fades into the blue

the relief of waking

and the agony of aching joints

hot shower easing

stiffened shoulders, twisted hips

side sleeping to run from terrors

old companions from my youth

unaged in all these years.

Why do they still haunt

the corridors of dreaming sleep

I let them fall

because they treated folk

as Christians do:

judgement and condemnation.

we are all square pegs

but our corners are compassion

and vulnerability

only when we shave them away

do were become the followers

of a hateful god

listen! What can I be,

but who I purport to be

Once, I wanted the respect

of a man who wore robes to work

and professed to be Good

Good lies rotting in a shallow grave

three shots point blank by an Iceman

who was cleared of murder/

She'd smiled at him

in a disrespectful manner.

And under the clear blue sky

a smallpox microbe escapes.

Thursday, 30 April 2026

30th April 2026

dandelion seeds

sailing on a breeze's back

welcoming lawn

Ann, at Eighty

she doesn't eat meat

unless she knows the source

and it's fresh-kill.

Deer from the local park

shot and dressed by the gamekeeper

skinned at home by her daughter.

Rabbits and pheasants

this time from the farmer

along with still-bleeding chickens.

Her husband, eighty-four,

shot a pigeon yesterday

they had it fried in butter.

You must think we're awful, she says

and I say not at all

my vegetarianism is a luxury.

Wednesday, 29 April 2026

29th April 2026

morning minimart

posting the package I eBayed

a pound richer

Reform UK (Wales)

He's an old white fella

who say's he's not racist

he just doesn't want not-whites

to cross the Welsh border.

It's not racism

to reject immigrants

and tourists

and refugees

and people under threat of death

from Poland, Hungary, Africa, America

because they'll be a Welcome in the Hillsides

if they're at least millionaires

and there's Welcome in the Valleys

if they're also white.

Tuesday, 28 April 2026

28th April 2026

exposed worms

as I lift the winter covers

gathered bounty

Insomniac

an argument

about wrapping paper

saved 'just in case'

someone gives him a belated gift

and he has to give one back.

in a corner

between the wall and the window

he is curled inside a sheet

waiting for the change to come;

a metamorphosis

into a better human being.

I speak to him kindly;

'better' is subjective'

and we love you

just as you are.