Category Observations

Hot Stuff

freyathewriter 7 Comments

Sky high, sky rocket,
pierce the starred firmament
and blast away.
Tropical tendrils embrace, then pin your limbs,
press you into pillows,
suffocating, enveloping and
pulling you into the abyss
of furnace heat.
Coal fires rage inside your mind,
slick skin snake-smooth
hisses to the touch.
Fluxing and undulating,
enslaved and tormented –
reach for sanity
and the chill of the new dawn.
Let the fever break,
watch mercury falling,
feel your heart beat steady.
Be calm, be free.

Hot Stuff

*****

I have finally succumbed to the bug that’s going round and have spent the day in bed, sleeping, aching, tossing and turning. Those who know me best will understand that I am a terrible patient, so am best left to my own devices when the mercury rises! At least, in my poet cloak, I can put the ickyness into more words than ‘ughhhh’.

You will notice that I have added a SoundCLoud rendition of this poem to today’s post, and indeed I added a reading of Enervated yesterday. Not everyone feels confident reading poetry, so I thought that it would be helpful for those of you that like to listen, rather than read.

Enervated

freyathewriter 48 Comments

The shadows swallow her whole, these days
as if she has been absorbed,
subsumed and desiccated.
Once, vitality was her constant companion.
She had glowed, incandescent, iridescent,
alight with youth and hope,
bursting with dreams as limitless as the universe.
Her brunette mane gave way to wiry grey
and frown-lines ridged her forehead,
her soft skin thinned and crazed with spider-web creases.
She packed her enthusiasm into a box,
gave her silks and velvets to charity,
discarded her perfumes, jewels and decadence
tucked her spirit away and faded into nothing.

The shadows swallow her whole these days.
The shadows swallow her whole.

Enervated

*****

This week, Mary, our host at dVerse Poetics wants us to write on invisibility. I thought I would approach it from the perspective of growing old in both body, and spirit. This will not happen to me!

I hope you enjoy my offering – and please do join us!

Fair Game

freyathewriter 38 Comments

They swagger, these gifts of the gods
Draped in Savile Row
Handmade brogues squeaking
Signalling their advance
Sleek terminals flashing green and red
The latest billions to be made
Orchestrated by one perfectly manicured digit
A rarefied world, this domain of the trader
Tiger women diluting the testosterone just enough
To become the next female BSD.
(I don’t have the balls
In all senses of the word).
They all walk and talk a good game
Ride the highs and lows with aplomb
Possessing animalistic grace, a certain panache
Revelling in the glory, drowning the losses in Moët & Chandon
Or inside their bonus-bought classic car
Seats rubbed smooth with 90mph sex and cocaine
Shagging the pressure away in a City side street.
Rare beasts, these,
Stalking, hunting down that one trade
Chasing mammon, winner takes all
But I wonder, when it comes down to it
When I see those who drew the short straw
Carrying their belongings in a cardboard box
Incongruously shabby against their Cartier adornments
Leaving their ivory tower for the last time
Facing down the cameras as journalists hunt in packs
Trading titillation for the headline news
I wonder – do they think it was worth it, after all?
Probably.

*****

This week, Brian, our host at dVerse Meeting the Bar wants us to consider character – something more akin to penning short stories and novels, rather than poetry. Fabulous! I love a challenge!

My take is all about that much-maligned character, the City trader. I have worked in the Square Mile since last century (no, really!) and have met and seen a few in my time. Some are as bad as the press paints them, many are not. All of them have guts, that’s for sure! I haven’t based my poem on anyone in particular – consider it an amalgamation of many traits I have seen (in traders and other types) over the years.

I hope you enjoy my offering – and please do join us! The hosts all work extremely hard to make the community a success.