Monday 2 May 2016

The End of Ghost Story III

To be continued...

The audio for this years work can be heard here

Health permitting, Ghost Story IV shall follow next year.

Not even began to think about next year's yet so can't really reveal anything
but it will be all out war I can say now

The blog shall be here

Saturday 30 April 2016

Part XXX (Part A and B)

(The End..)


(A)

Ribbed in a broken
Red sunset
The man in black
Stood there
Lost in thought
For a good ten minutes
arriving after only
Brooks was left 
Before Brooks spoke

‘Well, I wasn’t expecting that;
He snorted
Reaching for a cig

‘Neither was I,
I thought he would
Have killed him for sure’

‘Instead he bought us more time’
The Man in Black
Pulled up his collar

‘And you believe that?’

'Mandrake arrived 15 minutes ago' ’

Brooks swore.


(B)

Carried across the wind
His coat blew up in the air
For five minutes
After he left the train

Covering the slight fog
Dangling on the platform
Like a blanket
Choking the life of somebody,

Before placing his sunglasses
Back on slowly
Leaving the two young inspectors
Shaking for a good ten minutes after,

Carrying on all the way to the gardens
Past people pushing their way
All the way up to the station
Like they were in a rush to leave

Where his friend eventually
Spotted him stood outside a coffee shop
Flicking through his mobile
With a strained frustration

‘Mandrake’ He said
to which Mandrake smiled wordlessly
his feeth flashing whitely in the sun
like they were fangs.

'When are those bastards due to arrive?'

'Tuesday night'

'Gives us time to prepare then'
looking at the poster on the side of the bus.



To be continued.. 

Friday 29 April 2016

Part XXIX A and B

(Nearly there - two more pieces leading to the end with the last I am expecting of my guest poems this year, the lovely Siofra Martin from Ireland. Enjoy)


(A)

Lucas stood there motionless
For a few seconds
Afterwards
Catching his breath
In a bass led heartbeating panic

Coma white in a chain led frenzy
Without a clue
Where he was
And dust dragging off his paws,

Sniffing his air in a vain attempt
To get his baring
Away from the light
Burning on his back

And fur half torn
All over his ears
Not to mention talons
All over the way back

‘What the hell did you do?’
he heard the words
following him all the way
back to the tunnel

and into the arms
of his people

barely aware of
what had just happened

and even less
of the deaths
he had caused
through no fault of his own.

(B)

‘What the hell did you just do?’
Michelle said stunned
Her fingers shaking
In murmured echoes.

‘I gave him peace’
Andy said in a tone
He didn’t regnoise
Cast out with a purpose,

‘He had been poisoned,
I cast it out’

Michelle looked at him
White-faced
‘How the hell did you do that?’

‘I don’t know’
He collapsed.

***

I know you aren’t in front of me.

I know you aren’t in front of me.
No,
 Don’t protest,
 I can see you sitting there
Head slightly tilted,
Glazed-eyed stare
Occasional grunts telling me to go on,
But body language screaming,
Are you nearly done?!?
Am I just boring..?
No..
 Is there something wrong?
I’m starting to worry
There’s so much of you gone.
Where is your sparkle?
Your fire’s gone out
I miss your laughter
I hate your self-doubt
Your colours have faded
To all over grey,
You blend into back grounds
And have little to say
I’m not the only one who’s noticed a difference in you
How your smile’s now rarer than the rarest of jewels
How you’re slowly confirming what we all feared we knew

How you’re slowly retreating from those you love most
How little by little you’re becoming a ghost.

@ Siofra Martin

Thursday 28 April 2016

Part XXVIII A & B & Andrew Smith - Movement in the Dark III

(On the day of my birthday actually - here are two of my favouite pieces so far following directly on from the last piece with a third piece from my Brighton friend Andrew Paul Smith - Movement in the Dark III)

A

Coughing in the sunset
the sudden burst of light
fused the lights
for almost two minutes

throwing everybody

in the area
to the ground 
like they had been Rugby tackled

breaking windows


shortening engines of

passing buses and cars

freezing the village

for a good few seconds 

before vanishing 

like a magician's trick

and leaving two

what could be men
stood there in shock

while the world 

shivered around them. 

B


Standing nearly in the light
They were thrown backwards

Some of them sliced
Almost in half
By the exploision
Like molten ice melting,

Forging their hatred
Into steel
Before splitting
Some into dust,

Some into the river
Never to be seen again
And the one
That escaped
Into a taunt line
Disappearing into
The nearby tunnel

Crying in broken agony. 

****


Movement in the Dark III

I tried to move with slight and ease
Not wanting to disturb a thing
Every muscle wanted nothing more than to seize,
Grazes covered in slime starting to sting
I had no sense of time or direction in here
Just my heart beating its impending sound of doom
And as the scraping sounds emerged once more something was suddenly clear,
This nightmare was sure to conclude very, very soon.
It came with a speed far beyond that of man
My throat squeezed between elongated fingers and curved nails.
But my found resolve, I knew, would force me to fight back as best I can
My heavier weight lifting it up despite protesting squeaks and wails.
Desperation and anger found strength now unbound
As I flung this man-rodent against the tunnel wall
The crunch of bone and split of sinew a resonating sound
And then nothing, for what seemed an eternity, nothing at all.
I waited a long moment, resigned to swift resolution from the nest
But it seemed as if I was singled out by only one
And so I didn’t wait around to theorise this test
I had to act now, gather evidence and so for this to be done
The body was dead and broken, but easy enough to drag
so I pulled with all my reserve and might
As the bodies of my colleagues dimly came into view my legs starts to sag
And I thought ‘what would everyone make of this grisly sight?!’
At least I had the proof of slaughter
The beast with my friends' flesh between its maw
At least the police should most definitely give me quarter
Along with the statement of events I saw
As I started up the ladder, the light seemed so bright, almost painful like a burn
The sounds from above so loud against strangely pointed ears
And my teeth! Growing sharp and long, and the thirst...for what was this I seemed to yearn?
The thought of the public suddenly greater than all of my past fears
I found myself sniffing the air, tasting a scent, my now stretched nails curving around
Now I understood, from a clawing graze, this undiscovered race, one for one, in this sewer
My fate now forever bound.





Wednesday 27 April 2016

Part XXVII (Part A and B)

(Two pieces today - Part A focuses on Andy moving slowly towards Lucas and a very short Part B talking about Hope)

Part A

stood there in shock
underneath a street light
Andy stepped a few inches forward
with the breeze roaring
in his ears,

spilling over Michelle's words
almost unhearable

inverted in a different dimmeson 

'It's okay, I'm not here
to hurt you'

redifing emotions 
rather than words

airy silence 

rather than loudness

light merging 
with the darkness

cleansing each other
almost by magic. 




(B)

Surrounderd in chaos
Ghana looked at Brooks

'What's he doing?'
Brooks said
his words sounding almost
like a sky burial

'Hope;
she answered simply

'Hope'

Tuesday 26 April 2016

Part XXVI


(Part 26 focuses again on Andy coming to a relisation)


'Can't you see' Andy carried on

his own fear caked

stretching across the distance
until Lucas froze

'Somebody's poisoned him
tainted him'

replacing terror
with pearls

exploding in imaginary
bombs

'He's murdered literally
dozens of your people'
Ghana said
rolling backwards
into the distance

swolled in crevics

staying separate in the distance.

'But it's not him'
Andy stepped towards him
'It's not him'

with Michelle's screams
following him further.

Monday 25 April 2016

Chapter XXV

(Following straight on, it is all a question of breeding, Ghana explains)

XXV

‘He’s not bred for that’
Ghana said
Cracking the tension
Up to ten

Spitting words
Through inrrevisble
Laced sadness

‘His kind are not murders’
Subsumed in knowledge

‘then what the fuck has happened’
Andy answered.
‘he’s been poisoned’