Orphaned Islands (Un)poetry

Alias Smith or Jones!! That was beneath sarcasm
or ridicule.
Duh
thick
total lack of understanding or respect for an audience.

No, he said you start with your first name, “ Greg ” …. head up, attention
natural man … reflexive always
trying not to … like trying not to sneeze
possible, but difficult
so…. got that part.
About surnames
think of the curve
frequency of distribution, a not attention gathering median,
something like Jackson, Johnson, Taylor
or one that no one would want
like me
Greg Cocks –
poor bastard…. imagine being stuck with that handle
that’s how you choose a name
for working under the table.….

They had two boys
at about that age
she spoke to their father
suggesting he speak to him about
“ WHAT?”
Huffing and puffing trails to ….. “ that’s your job.”
“ Well Micheal,” she replied
“they are boys,
and you do seem to understand the mechanics of it. ”
She did
and
“ oh Mum we’ve done that at school – they showed us a DVD.”

Without responsibilities –
wife, children, school expenses
and
the elephant at the table –
mortgage: 14, 15, 16 percent and climbing,
it was easy to say,
“ I wouldn’t put up with that shit.”
Seasonal worker … just for the harvest
rent – cheap – tiny,
minute, even for a 1-bedroom cottage
the rest for groceries, booze,
and what the locals called wacky baccy.
Often I caught the looks –
sometimes  I saw envy,
on other occasions, memory.

An orchard
in a small town with not much else on offer
six permanent staff and owner
who
everybody knew had a menacing loan –
he’d made sure
and would often say
“ I’ve really only got work for five ”
and most days
at 3:45 pm,
4 pm,
4.10 pm,
give each a task he knew would last
60 minutes, 45 minutes, 30 minutes
finish was 4.30 – no one dared.