2nd August 2026

 

heavy crop

withering before they ripen

dry summer

© Rachel Green August 2026

Sometimes

I talk to myself

just because I want to hear my opinion

sent out to the universe at large

and it makes sense to me.

Sometimes

I am composing sentences

for use when writing

and trying out how words will sound

when read by some AI voice.

Sometimes

I say the government is listening

and we both laugh

and then Alexa laughs

and the television laughs

And the next day

Amazon offers a tin sign

that says: "Sometimes

I talk to myself

then we both laugh."

© Rachel Green August 2026

1st August 2026

 

spattered eggs

young lad horrified when I walk off

(fetching cleaner)

© Rachel Green August 2026

oil paintings

left in the garden to dry

dog prints

© Rachel Green August 2026

31st July 2026

 

spattered paint

it might look random

it's not

© Rachel Green July 2026

Sally Shaw

played the recorder for me

on a school outing to Bath

and I took a photograph 

with my old Box Brownie

with film you had to send 

for processing in Dis.

I always thought that was in Hell:

I read Dante at seven

Aristotle at eight

and Paradise lost shortly after.

I once cycled eleven miles

to go to Sally's birthday party

although I wasn't invited

but her mum gave me a drink of lemonade

and a slice of strawberry sponge.

She's dead now;

killed in a road accident

when she was thirty-seven

but in the photograph I took

she'd still playing the recorder

and smiling.

© Rachel Green July 2026

30th July 2026

 

portrait

of the former artist

as a lawn rake

© Rachel Green July 2026

Michael Moore

Michael (never Mike)

was probably the best carver I've ever met;

though he was just seventeen

he had innate talent;

drawing to stone

he was the Michelangelo

of Redditch college

and a beautiful young man

with the most perfect skin

I've ever peeled off.

© Rachel Green July 2026

29th July 2026

weight gain

only half a pound

still a kicker

© Rachel Green July 2026

free range eggs

often misleading

my general go-to boxed eggs

claim free range but they're not:

the number stamped on them is 2

which means barn raised

with a peephole to the outside.

1 means free range but penned in

and 0 is proper back garden free range.

lets not talk about 3

because that's 'enhanced cage'

meaning that's a perch

in a cage the size of an i-pad

and should be banned in England.

© Rachel Green July 2026

 

28th July 2026

 

dieting

breaking one habit at a time.

Cheese...bread...

© Rachel Green July 2026

five years, I wasted at art school;

not because it was art school

but because I had access

to free, all-day life models

and I could have been an awful lot better

than I am now.

My advice to artists:

draw the figure; every chance you get

and rejoice.

© Rachel Green July 2026

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