Ghosts - Tony Gardner

They played the concert in the Parish church
And walls resounded with the songs they sung
And while the music moved, affected all
I felt the ghosts who mingled there among
The listeners young and old, and those whose kin
Have lived here oh, so many hundred years
The incomers who may or likely not may not stay
So if they go will not cause many tears

I stand at my great-great-grandfather's grave
And feel him near while walking fields he trod
I wonder how rich folk think they can own
Land owned not by their money but by God.

Tony Gardner

The Winter Jumper - V. Bean

My special job is to warm up somebody
they sometimes pull me, often stretch me
I swing on the line, at clothes-hanging time
and if it starts to rain, they come and fetch me.

I don’t like getting wet, I want to hide
my favourite spot, the tumble dryer
so snug and warm, when I’m inside
I love it when they turn it higher.

After I’m worn for a while, it’s a woolen-wash
then pegged up, to hang, dodging snow and rain
food gets spilt on me, they really don’t care
and stink! . . it’s that awful perfume, again.

Ooh, look, I’m in for a quick-wash
now I’m hanging out, in a Winter moon
I never really feel the cold of night
‘cos I’m a three-ply, cable-knit cocoon.

I await my owner’s comfy hands,
to unpeg me, carefully fold me, then
back in my big drawer, to rest, until
they decide to put me on, again.

I’m back on the line again, soon
but not next to the knickers and bras
they all seem to go together
but, me, I’m only Granpa’s.

V. Bean

Companion - Ian Duquemin

I ran into the devil
Who was just, hanging around
He needed a little sunshine
It was me the devil found
He asked me “Where you going?”
I replied I didn't know
“But if you wanna walk with me
Just follow where I go”
We walked across the meadows
Many rivers we would cross
The sun above had brightened
And it slowly followed us
We reached a mountain where I said
“We'll climb this mountain high”
The devil he just laughed and said
“I haven't wings to fly”
With distant steps behind me
My new friend stopped to say
“I can't go any further, as I've kinda lost my way”
I gave my friend a smile. Took another step or two
Then turned to him and said “Oh well… I guess I'll follow you”

Ian Duquemin

Flamingos - Oscar Milde

Thank you Lord, Flamingos cry,
surveying, with disdainful stare,
all manner of ignoble beasts
of crooked horn or matted hair.

Thank you, Dear Lord, they intone
their prayers of gratitude to Him,
for making Others ugly
while making Us so chic and slim.

Oscar Milde

Cat Burglar - Edgar Allan Poet

I curl up upon the armchair.
I purr and stare defiantly.
I will not move, let no one dare
to interfere, to dislodge me
or, when they slumber, softly deep,
I’ll suffocate them in their sleep.

They think I am a sulky cat.
They could not be the more misled,
for I am worse, by far, than that:
I am the Spirit of the Dead,
a demon dressed in feline skin.
When darkness falls, let sport begin.

I’ll sidle carefully upstairs
then enter bedrooms, one by one,
(their overheated, smelly lairs)
spring on each bed and have some fun.
I’ll dip into their psychic streams
and steal, from each, their precious dreams.

Edgar Allan Poet