Quite elated
I felt when I read your
three words, chewed over
perhaps
or just a whim
of expression, not sure
how to be so bold
as to pay fortune and favour out
to one such as I,
a fool that inhabits the space I exist in,
humbled regardless
of the fact that you took time
out of your day
to step into mine,
and leave those three words of love,
really
rather
good.
Ian D. Hall 2018
The smell of damp sawdust
filled the nostrils
of the man out of time
and darts,
dominoes and cribbage
the only games on his mind;
the last thing he expected
to find that night
as he strolled into this new adventure ground
was a nurse, out with a friend,
drinking tempered halves
from a dimpled glass,
catching her eye, he surprised
himself by smiling
and fell in love
with the ambience and strength
provided by walking in
on The Bird In Hand.
I can feel my breathe
diminish,
go thin,
even before it leaves
my body,
exhaling out of control
as it insanely tries to justify
the war I go through,
a soldier never quite alone
in this jungle wilderness,
a beast
camouflaged
in plain sight, standing out
as death rolls the dice
with a grin that bares rotten, stunted baby teeth
and a certain foul essence that passes
for conviction, assuredness,
a firmness of plan
as jungles collide
and bitter battles
Silence
falls
suddenly
on the day after, although
I swear I can hear
the sound of birds again,
Silence
as the bombs and bullets
no longer scream
through the clearing air
of this long hand weaved
burial place for the living,
Silence
for the waters
of impatient tide
that rotted our feet
and sapped our strength
to do anything but survive,
Silence
on this day
never sounded so sweet,
on this day,
the day after
How ridiculous
we have become,
equality is the corner
stone of true civilisation
and one that is under-threat
by the preposterous demands
of those who seek
to undermine it,
suing to be believed twenty
years younger,
just to be able to look
great in the eyes of women;
oh foolish creatures that we are,
all the battles we have endured,
all the insanity life can throw
upon our minds,
to be undone by the nonsensical
man in search of sex.
Handing my wife
a jumper I had worn
for a couple of days
to keep out the cold,
I asked
whether she thought
I could get one more night
out of it.
Bewildered, she first smiled
and then replied,
I don’t know about that,
but you might get it to
play the opening drum section
of In The Air Tonight…
Ian D. Hall 2018
.
..As you recount the image
of a thousand cinematic battles
and deep in water trench wait,
behind you
high above unknown gardens
rockets explode in the bold still sky,
the whizz bangs, whoops promoted
through the ranks
as other former angels die
with a bang, and dirty faces
from the powder that took their lives,
no time to scream, yell
out a warning, just a whispered
time’s up blink as they say good
bye to their mother, and all the while
behind first floor glass
Another zombie knocked on the door
in the early evening October
glow supplied
by moonlight and red rouged faces,
dipping into their mother’s
make-up bag
and the drool of fake blood
that gets wiped on the ghost’s
off-white bedroom sheet
because the taste of chocolate
isn’t as nice when your plastic Dracula
chops get in the way
of chewing and smiling stuffed face
dripping…
…expectation;
zombie, ghost and ghoulie,
growling wolf, a mistaken ballerina
swearing and threatening robbery
with violence, as only
He went hunting for squirrels
on a cold October day.
I remember my time
in Pittsburgh being one
in which I sat playing cards
till four in the morning,
the fine whisky
slowly adding to the occasion
of friendship, far removed
from the man with the gun
in his hand
and hate seeping out of his porous heart.
The incline railway overlooking
all of creation, the once former
Steeler’s ground lost
to history it seemed,
but below, stewing in his bile soup
It does not mean the end,
there is, after all,
more to life than
suddenly being quiet, reflect
on your thoughts if you must
but don’t let that full stop
dictate to you
the point of closer detail,
of thinking,
sweet consideration,
and then talk, shout, scream,
such vile words, such tempting
phrases and ponder a while
my friend, upon the point of
the end of the sentence,
don’t let a full stop
be the place where you
reside for the rest