Thursday, 1 September 2022

Library Pictures

I can see myself seeing him,
Gorbachev on the TV screen.
I recall the library pictures,
and the ever-present figure 
of Dr. John Harbison,
the State Pathologist.
I thought President Hillery 
was a woman, known only
by her first name,
and associated
Bosnia Herzegovnia
with the Eurovision.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali 
were just words I'd repeat.
Beirut seemed both made up,
and the only place on earth .
In all that I did not understand
I felt he was a decent man:
Glasnost, perestroika, and that birthmark,
Here's to you, Mr. Gorbachev.

Monday, 1 August 2022

Unyielding

My kingdom for a sausage
that can be removed.
Not bound by other hostages;
chained, and stuck, and glued.
Give me the option,
drama free,
to choose to take just one,
without performing surgery
to solve the riddle of the bunch.

What I wouldn't give
for a yielding pack of rashers.
with an actual pull-back lid
not the Fort Knox standard.
The worst is when it says
peel back and reseal
when, in fact, you need a blade
and brute ferocity.