Three pretty poor poems

Yoghurt

I bought a posher yoghurt than usual
because it was on offer
and therefore cheaper
than the yoghurts
that aren’t as posh
that I usually buy

It was one of those
where the yoghurt is on top
and the fruit beneath
unmixed
in a geological layer
at the bottom of the tub

When I got round to eating it
I ate from the top
down
forgetting to mix it up
or whatever it is
you’re supposed to do

So at the bottom
I was left with
a centimetre or so
of thin blueberry jam
which wasn’t very nice
when eaten on its own

__________

Knee

My knee aches
occasionally
and I dream of it snapping
suddenly
when I’m out for a walk
or climbing up the stairs
in the bookshop

and the spectacle I’d make
screaming in the park
or tumbling backwards
onto a table
piled high
with paperbacks
that I’ve no interest
in reading

__________

The last page of the notebooks I keep in my pocket wherever I go

This last page is usually filled
with the names of books
that I’ve seen round the shops
and thought that look interesting
that I can’t afford to buy

But it’s empty this time
because I’ve not been to the shops
since before this notebook began

__________

Notes:

1. I wrote these on July 21st, 2018
2. I had just been reading a book by Tim Key
3. And was overcome by the urge to poem
4. Or whatever the term is
5. Unfortunately the results were a bit of a disappointment
6. Also there was a fourth poem
7. It was called Piss
8. And went:

Piss
That’s what I said
Because
That’s what I thought
Piss

9. But it was too poor to include here
10. So I left it in the notebook

__________

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Gateway

They opened a gate, a few thousand years ago, out in the desert, as far away as it could be from people and animals, so they didn’t fall through by accident and end up on the distant planet it connected to.

It was made in such a way that what went in came out at the same rate on the other side, and what came back did the same here, so that there wasn’t a catastrophic loss of atmosphere, either there or here. Although they didn’t take into account the effect of the acceleration as our planets moved apart, so actually slightly less came out then went in, on both sides of the hole.

It used to be so busy they built a railway to bring people here to the in side, and another to take them away from the out side. And they did the same on the other planet, although that wasn’t a railway but something more advanced for which we never had the words to describe.

No one comes here now, though, so the railway’s all rusted and partially submerged beneath the sand.

I stepped through the gateway to the other world, and it was as bleak and as dead as our own. I walked round to the other edge of the gate and stepped back home, and did this over and over, each step through advancing time by fifty years, or thereabouts, and by a hundred, by the time I got back.

And like this I watched the worlds change, a stroboscope of incremental decay.

__________

Notes:

1. Written on 20th July, 2018

__________

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Odontomancy

I placed my teeth in the tin and gave them a rattle and then poured them out on to the table with a gummy smile as they revealed their prophecy to us all. I’d rolled five fives and got the maximum score.

Mother accused me of cheating and eventually the game had to be abandoned.

__________

Notes:

1. Written on July 14th, 2018

__________

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cat poem

a cat sneaked into my house today
and came upstairs
and saw me in my underwear

then it ran away
all the way back downstairs
and out the back door

into the garden
one quick look back from the safety of the fence
then gone for good

no amount of plaintive cries could bring it back

__________

1. Written on 8th May, 2018
2. Live, as it occurred

__________

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On the futility of postcards

__________

Notes:

1. Written on the 28th June, 2018
2. All events occurred as depicted
3. And where depicted
4. And when

__________

Support An Accumulation Of Things

If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon or my ko-fi.

Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.

(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more).

Thank you!