Peter Pacey

Whilst working away in 8a
Reminded I was of Faye Wray
Who was grasped by an ape
As a sort of a jape
...

My life's all for you, he said, recanting
First nights' blaze of self, his head a glitter ball.
All sincerity, he cupped her lovely face and kissed it
Noting, as he did so, how she closed her eyes
...

This getting out of your own way is tricky
You can't absent yourself, quite
Nor busy yourself too much in the actual spot
What I must do is listen
...

Wheel away, my special girl,
Though you are not full
Spurn the white bread tossed aloft
As sinners fear the host
...

Little scraps of knowledge sewn together for a chemise
Is all I have in the draughty world
And the constant stitching, where the hem or the sleeve
Is torn by the thorn of forgetfulness,
...

A clear Clarence Day muse
And Hackney carriage queues
And cough to work
On this birthday.
...

Whilst working away in 6a
A thought came to me so risque
That I dropped my inflexion
And found an erection
...

On polyethylene wheels
The Panavision locomotive
Slows to its carpet halt
A laser beam on gaffer marks the station.
...

It's said that once upon a time
A prophet in a power plant
Was guilty of a shocking crime.
By starting mystically to chant
...

I subside to compose
And a wood pigeon's tender throb
Lulls me back to Kenilworth
Where all life, or nearly
...

If I do stumble on my silly way
Will you for me forbear I pray
To curdle all your sympathies
But find instead a counterpoint to my mistake
...

The Bellini I had In Harry's Bar
They brought some little eatables
Was cold and sweet and full of fizz.
A waitress slid a postcard on the table
...

The Pathetic Fallacy is almost unavoidable
How can we not project ourselves onto the rocky world?
And then again, how we long for the obverse
The straitening of our jazzy life
...

Each TV, Xmas afternoon
The rom-coms shake the silly tears from me
Seventy one years or seventeen
The same foolishness supplies
...

And what's the point of me?
Years go by with nothing written
And nothing up there anyway.
But hit me with some trauma
...

Who am I
To think
Who am I
...

I love you! I love you!
Many months since we last met and now
You creep away from your adoring fans
And say to me 'I will never sit on your knee
...

Each human being weighs me down
I may have to lift you
My dicky heart will fail me
I know it will
...