Category: Unexpected

Environmentalism was new then
and farmers still conservative
two colours black and white.
Green ?
Only the US dollar.

Smoking held a majority at the time
yet to be reviled or evicted from the staffroom
tobacco important to the local economy
and well connected
25% local content mandatory. Government decree.

Here five hours from Antarctica
cultivation was fragile
subject to growing pains
not known in
Virginia, Cuba and the Carolinas.

Just as a single name is totemic
Elvis, Yoko, Napoleon
chemical infamy is denoted by
a crisp sequence of letters and or digit’s
full name never necessary. DDT

Invented for mosquitoes
but they cracked the code years before
now used on less wily opponents
but beginning to wrinkle environmental brows.
Hero becomes villain
as fashion becomes ridicule.

It was only a matter of time
rumour reckoned it had overheard a ban.
A just unwrapped alternative
cleverly plagiarized from plants
solution and problem
its warnings easily read
even by species below the median.

Carpet bombing was out
deception the new strategy
barley and rye or oats to be mixed in.
A farmer, brown of corduroy and red of face stands
a spokesman it seems.
he understands progress
and the need to change, “ but muesli for grubs.”
Laughter silences the Silent Spring.

Mick was the sort of uncle every family needs
relentlessly cheerful
always good for a beer
a story
a party.
Glass never half empty – “it was bloody half full”
life was to be enjoyed.
He did.

Travel
sport
family
business
with finesse, success and zest.

He fell unexpectedly and swiftly ill
terminally
disarmingly confessing to too much
booze
fags
and cholesterol.
No blame
no regrets
“ drink enough water it will kill a man.”

Funeral arrangements?
A brief service
religion not necessary
a tab on the bar at the local afterwards
err… ah… um… one question
cremation or burial ?
“Surprise me.”

Almost perfect teeth
large and white
slightly backward sloping – sharklike.
Metaphorical congruency
known to be out there
and not to be provoked.
Unseen
until the chill shadow and efficient brutality.

Mine was a walk on part in a hospital soap opera
a cameo of unimportance
by the time frenzy came into my waters
savagery had calmed
to repeated use
of an adjective born as a verb.

Language!
She turned it into a lethal weapon
projectiles hurled with ferocity no apology could soften.
The Queen’s English – not
even if the most frequent words
were found in the Oxford.

I had never been comfortable there
unhappiness a constant companion
satisfaction a distant memory.
When the chance came to leave
it was a decision needing no deciding.

A decade passed without a glance
in the rear view mirror of second thoughts.
One grey Sunday circling the supermarket aisles
a dorsal fin
brief exchanges of platitudes
still at that place I enquire
inserting her favourite adjective
When the profanity is ejected she looks at me reproachfully.