Perspective

.

Time passes…

Need glasses

Recollections expand and contract

Some memories shrivel and shrink

(could drive one to drink?)

Looking through a microscope

They fall into context

Perspective…

Blowing up before my eyes

Black and white

Dark and light

Greys are a passing phase

Magnify…

Maximise or minimise

Separate the wheat from the chaff

Unsure – ignore

Crucial yesterday

Trivial today

.

©Denise G Allen, 14 March 2013 06:50

Ghosts

.

Ghosts and ghouls

Send shivers and chills

Up my spine

As I lie supine

On my bed of memories

Memories…

Cemeteries…

Semi-trees…

Buried bones in their new homes

Limbs and branches

Comrades in arms

Ha Ha

Who goes there

Friend or foe

ALLies

.

©Denise G Allen, 13 February 2013 21:57

BLIND DRUNK

.

tyres screech
white lines flash
oh god
hit a robot
big shot
never mind
cross their palm
cops are blind
empty street
riding the night
on the right
no – the wrong
side
nightmare ride
cowering in back
boozer… loser
boozer… loser
mantra
in my head

.

©Denise G Allen, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 15:28

Bell Ringer

~

He rings my bell

signals long-lost feelings

longings, yearnings

half-remembered dreamings

healings, tenses, senses

in the deepest recesses of my being

~

©DGA 23 February 2012 14:31

Busy Hands

.

Back in the room we were before

Where the sun remained outside the door

Eight or nine old souls are there

Each ensconced in his own chair

.

Eyes cast down towards the ground

Silence reigns. The only sound

The clickety clack that needles make

Soft and rhythmic, quite hypnotic

.

In, round, through, off

In, round, through, off

Her neighbour busy too folding a tissue fanned

And ironing it smooth with the other hand

.

It’s quite easy to understand

The comfort gleaned from busy hands

Years of repetition ingrained

Rituals of the past retained

.

With the rest of the people it’s hard to tell

Just which of them are alive and well

There’s only one who meets your eyes

Before they slide away surprised

.

‘Cos no one cares if they’re alive or dead

Or fast asleep, though not in bed

.

©DGA 15 January 2012 08:39

Shadow People from the Past

~

Cloudy memories,

Becoming more fragile with the passing of time,

Take on a delicate flimsiness

And the people who were once so real

Become shadow people,

Glimpsed through the drapes

Shrouding the windows to the past.

~

©DGA 18 October 2011 11:15

Remembering

.

Memories rattle round

Like the old pots and pans

On a wandering tinker’s dray

With an enormous array

Of potions and lotions

And creams galore

Piled up high on the wooden floor

Scents and events long forgot

Bring a knot to my throat

As I drown in the gush and the rush

At last released from the heart of the past

.

©DGA 19 December 2011 06:29

Goodbye…

. 

Goodbye, dear friend, goodbye

The struggle is done

God reached down his hand

And fetched you home

We were as sisters, you and I

Recognised each other

From years gone by

I knew you and you knew me

Before time and pre history

 .

©DGA 09 November 2011 08:08

Memories, Mementoes & Mosbolletjies

~ 

Memories and mementoes

Taped up in boxes

Enclosed in cases

Tied up with string

Which to hold on to

And which to let go

Even the sweetest

Leaves a nasty trace

Leaves a bitter taste

No room for the sad

No place for the bad

Let me savour

But the purest flavour

Bake mosbolletjies*

For the future

~

*South Africa: a sweetish bun,
eaten fresh or dried as a rusk, often flavoured with aniseed

©DGA 10 October 2011 09:52

WE

Spring is on its merry way,

Buds will bloom another day,

Clusters spread along the vine,

We would share a flask of wine.

~~~

Sitting in the lukewarm sun,

Remembering when we were one,

I think back to where we were,

Wonder where our paths diverged.

~~~

I am here and you are there,

It was all too much to bear,

Death denies a second chance,

We were lucky to have it once.

~~~

©DGA 27 August 2011 09:42