Poems by Grixie

Publisher: Independent Publishing Network.

Publication date: May 2024

ISBN: 978-1-80517-692-3

Author: Grixie

Email: brig2010@live.co.uk

Address: North Warwickshire England Please direct all enquiries to the author.

£11-00

A personal

collection of

my poems

From Brian Grix

compiled Spring 2024

i

Forthcoming works

Early poems

Life poems

Love and Romance poems

ii

A BOOK OF POEMS

by

Brian Thomas Grix

iii

Publisher: Independent Publishing Network.

ISBN  978-1-80517-692-3

copyright © 2024 Brian and Beryl Grix The right of Brian Grix to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. No  part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior  written permission of the publisher A CPI catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Printed and bound by D.G.Graphics Measham  Great Britain This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by  way of trade or otherwise, be lent, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s  prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser: except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review.

iv

CONTENTS by title Bankers and cankers

1

A life’s about

3

Can you hear the blue bells ringing?

4

Pane rain

5

Old advice

7

Prey?

8

Shun the shuns

9

A Robin in Pat’s tree

10

All our Dads

11

Chris Ainslie

13

Patriotism

14

Deep in our bowels

16

Holy rain that’s the spirit

17

Convent kitchens

18

Norma’s garden

20

Sorry to the Monster

22

Precious babies

23

Graftless

25

Wars horses

27

Wisdom

28

Thoughts at Christmas time

29

Gentlemen

30

Romeos

31

Dreaming

32

Chairmen

33

Band of Rain

35

v

Peerless Youth

36

After 7th October 2023

37

When I’m really old

40

Hello Children of the World

41

To Sean: December 2023

43

CalMac

45

We’ve

47

The Members of Parliament

51

Off your-bum

54

Dear Aisha

56

Plastic bags

57

Poems marked **

59

have some notes about them. See end pages to

71

vi

INDEX of First lines Accountants and some politicians 1

Dizzying heights Morning fights 3

I can hear the clouds a’ moving 4

Warm rain cold rain once upon a pane rain.

5

Fill your life with purpose

7

Man eats tiger shrimp/prawn

8

Depresshun

9

A morning frost with snowdrops

10

All our dads were fucked up

11

The crocus were out, the snow drops, of course 13

My Father was a miner his Father was a miner 14

Spill the beans you bribed men

16

Cold wet viscous vicious violent rains vehement 17

Listening in to conversations

18

Norma’s garden lonely the fountain still playing 20

You who were, and gave, your very best 22

The dead are going thick and fast 23

Silly little lords and princes

25

The profits of boom are the prophets of doom 27

Wisdom is a fearful painful dream 28

Sea dreaming  dream seeming

29

Gentlemen all. This ref’s had the gall 30

Rob’s gone John’s gone just we few 31

Sitting in the sun-shine

32

Chairmen spare men fighting bears hands bare men 33

A band of rain met a Band of Brothers 35

vii

Reckless rude and peerless youth 36

Tell me it’s a joke

37

I looked at this page, it was empty 40

How do you like the inheritance we've given you?

41

So-long Sean old friend; my confessor 43

Wet cold, windy cold

45

What else is there to say ?

47

An M.P's work is never done

51

Unless you have an hour or two to spare 54

Forgive us dear Aisha it wasn’t that we didn’t care 56

Bagged household goods heaped, all piled 57

viii

Being a late developer hasn’t done me any favours: I have had to wait until the end of term to think about publishing these few words and verses

I haven't worked alone on this project; Thanks go to my best mate Beryl my lovely lifetime love and companion to whom this work is dedicated.

Also, many thanks to Avril Breedon for her sterling advice, for reading these poems and for proofing the text.

Thanks also to Derek and Michelle at DG Printers for all their, common-sense and practical advice.

Without the advice from these lovely folk the book could well have been entitled

OOPS!

ix

Bankers and cankers Accountants and some politicians Businessmen and bankers

Solicitors and CEOs

Feeding on pecuniary cankers

All to blame for England’s woes. And You.

And me, we holy Joes

Complaisant or complacent, lazy go hazy Muddled fudging half awake never ever budging

You and me Half aware forever never judging Keeping these leaders on their toes Falters falls and - failing - slows Short term wealth full term grief Time the greatest maudlin thief 1

Ted with Maggie        (Heath, Thatcher) Tony against Dave      (Blair, Cameron) Never tried this Isle, to save

Never this Isle, to save

Money money money

Robs us all of care

Morals memory minds all closed

Neither able to fear nor dare

Nor anything do for love reposed Go to hell then see if I care

Money has us by the throat

Keeping us in thrall

All for one none for all

Always and all ways weasel and stoat 19th July 2018

**

2

A life’s about

Dizzying heights Morning fights Taxman’s bites mortgage frights Lovely lovely lovely sights

Coming going morning nights

Rights and fights insights and rites Living breathing flying kites

A life’s about these human’s mights Living loving breathing moving

Giving keeping trying prying

Flights of fancy when I’m trying On it goes on we go

Caring and daring and madly despairing Give it to me take it away

But love me dear

dearly

every day

**

3

Can you hear the blue bells ringing?

I can hear the clouds a’ moving and awash inside them soothing

a rain to come

Can you feel the clouds inside me?

And the tears we all are sum

They can tear us a lash of frightening Leery feary teary numb

Snow goes rain comes on for-ever We; You and I have been.

Then never

Hark the clouds while all along we’re here to hear Delight in clouds, rain, snow, weather Surely You and I shall vibe and thrive together

**

4

Pane rain

Warm rain cold rain once upon a pane rain.

Pretty snow pity snow, falling lightly lightening landscapes whitening manscapes.

As we go

Lightning backdrops spiting raindrops hail and bright tops

White-scapes, black birds, blackbirds, bullying, belligerent, again.

Our garden, won’t lack birds keeping us sane.

I can hear the clouds a’ moving and the sh’sh sh’sh of rain to come

my thoughts and doubts eluding, the lash of pain the depths we plumb

5

Find rain kind rain fine rain once upon a mind rain

Thine rain mine rain singing birds and singing rain

flying dying trying ringing singing filling fill our dreams with joys

and striving jiving living skiving giving living making life and noise

some time in the 21st Century

6

Old advice

Fill your life with purpose

don’t get beguiled by idle pursuits and trivial games.

Set goals then beat them

Make the seconds count and the minutes work.

Treasure the hours,

make pleasure/leisure/work one and the same.

Don’t ride your thoughts problems worries examine them close up.

Then put them away. Move on Don’t let them lurk

**

7

Prey?

Man eats tiger shrimp/prawn

Man goes to zoo

Man gets eaten by escaped tiger Tiger defecates

Worms eat ordure

Worms excrete worm casts

Worm casts fertilise the soil

Vegetation of several edible varieties grows Vegetation is eaten by people and other animals People eat vegetation and other animals People eat tiger shrimps/prawns One of the people goes to the zoo ........?

8

Shun the shuns depresshun

irritatshun

desperatshun

distractshun

frustratshun

procrastinatshun

imitatshun

but,

show consideratshun

I one day may need atrial ablatshun 9

A Robin in Pat’s tree

A morning frost with snowdrops

Blackbirds on the lawn

Spring still a month away rose bush still a’thorn Mottled sunlight dappled bright Waking, thinking, planning this new day Feed the Robin, seed the Robin

Those Blackbirds, Bluetits, Doves a’grey Take this day and use it, form it, mould it, choose it

Kindly may it play

early 2023                        **

10

All our Dads

All our dads were fucked up

All our dads were in the war

All our dads were sucked up

Came back said, no more

All our dads bit the bullet

Signing up for a war-time billet All our dads were put through it Tried. Cried. And Fried on that skillet Peace in our time rhymes with crime and grime Monied men made more, liking that second war Greed in our prime chimes with dime and mime Honeyed men paying for it got it all the time 11

The thousand yard stare and the missing conversation The thousand dads’ glare with some weird syncopation The need for quiet and the fiction, cigs and beer a cheap addiction Grinding teeth at night with shouts of aggravation Going astray with Thomasina, Dixie, Harriet. *

The Band of Brothers taking lovers to forget the others

Flying Dying sailing ailing shooting rooting and tarrying

The land of others of grieving dads and widowed mothers

*(Tom, Dick. And Harry)

May 2023

**

12

Chris Ainslie in memoriam

The crocus were out, the snow drops, of course.

Sunshine on the churchyard’s lawn Sad and sunny on the winter morn In sad sunny array

Chris’ last day

We remembered, smiled then bade goodbye Fond memories swaying heads a’nod Tears. Smiles; threats from own futures Soon, we’ll meet again

Bitter sweetly, the quake week’s first Friday Sending company for the man’s man February 2023

**

13

Patriotism

My Father was a miner his Father was a miner his, Father, was a farmer

I am neither miner nor farmer my son’s a cop, a lineman, a shepherd, a fine man We all worked until we drop’t

We put the Great in Britain but left open the gate to Britain. And they came, the halt, the cheats, the lame.

Making Britain fair game Tony Blair and aim.

The politicians their degrees decrees and   . . . .

propositions.

The business greedy men put us out of work.

Again and again they did it more from spite.

The movers, shakers, motions. Parliament’s  . . . .

. . . . . Nux vomicas

14

Aloft on potions serious academics subtracting our light

A cabinet of minorities no help to the majorities, the London crowd once made us proud Now stamps us curiosities.

Sept 7th  2022                  **

15

Deep in our bowels Spill the beans you bribed men

Lick that bowl squirmin vermin

Like scabby council chairmen

Big bad bold twenty-year-men

Time of greed with Iraqi exchequer Snouts in the bowl its a cracker Bribery corruption Parliament excels Shouts in our bowels, all party revels

**

16

Holy rain that’s the spirit Cold wet viscous vicious violent rains vehement rains pains banes boats planes no trains no brains no gains without trains

Cold wet shivers a finger nail insisting down our spine, insistent and persistent down a naked spine. A scrape-ed spine.

This was the sort of rain that makes bogs and quick-sands such man slaughterers. No good shrugging a shoulder, shrugging on a cagouleśaying a bit of rain never harmed any: that’s the Holy Rain; this is the un, holy stuff.

The nasty stuff.

No sprites, playful or otherwise or mischievous dryads these:

just plain no nonsense spite.

**

17

Convent kitchens Listening in to conversations

Convent kitchens Railway stations In the office down the pub

Making small talk and sensations Folks aloud there’s the nub

Walking talking in right attire no longer baulking just met and meeting just meeting greeting chat and fleeting moments spent around the fire

chestnut eating at Fawkes's pyre 18

Tweeting treating indexing and vexing Discussing debating agreed

Teasing chafing spouting a creed Gesturing signing mouthing high speed Demanding everyone follows this lead All’s said and done, let’s go home We’ve said it all and nothing’s changed The craic was fine and dandy

A good tongue comes in handy

Like taking baby from a candy

19

**

Norma’s garden (in memoriam) Norma’s garden lonely the fountain still playing spraying

Daffs nearly gone tulips young all wavy swaying

Your birds wandering the quiet garden lonesome lonely garden

Beauty blooms you've planted never to see with birds that beg your pardon

Come to Chapel. Joan’s, still agile fingers, play the Shaker hymn

And Emma sings in soprano praise of a life well lived and trim

Sunday morning Baptist chapel hymns and thought

Austrey Gardens plants seeded loved and brought.

20

Toby down the road no one to lead him only Sandra to feed him

No one to chase the crows without Norma to tend her garden prim

The sun rise shows the garden bright light gay every Austrey day

The fountain quiet garden lonesome lonely garden.

1st June 2023

**

21

Sorry to the Monster

You who were, and gave, your very best, Now were spurned the butt of jest Sorry to the Monster

The horrors you suffered

The sacrifice that we took for granted The pain endured and never shouted Again and again you never p0uted

**

22

Precious babies The dead are going thick and fast All good friends present and past Times are changing losing the Passed No repeats no regrets no funds amassed Good times sad times never had it so good times

Lovely folks lovely blokes lovely thoughts Lovely Ladies, Aunts and Uncles Cousins Parents

All those lovely people. all the friendships wrought

23

Times to remember days of joy, precious babies a girl a boy

The times we’ve had for good or bad For better or worse living chapter and verse Loving our friends with alloy, precious baby new toy

Heart rending all blending, never so coy 24

Graftless

Silly little lords and princes

Czars and tsars, knights and kings Death for millions how my soul winces Land-grabbing bastards with their arses in their slings

Presidents and fuehrers, hitlers stalins putin Little minds and emperors, witless malign gets the boot in

Lords and knights brim-full with airs and graces

kill the lions save the donkeys not for them life’s races

25

Silly little *hights and pesterers brimful with heirs and greasers

Rulers fights and gestures, pitiful porcine pawing at the cess pit Turf them outright let some air in a brand new system, call it Of  the folk, by the folk, for the folk M.Ps go to blazes

*S

26

Wars horses

The profits of boom are the prophets of doom The Armament-ières the Mademoiselles of Babylon

The Whores of Wars

Doom gloom and boom gives room for your tomb wefted and warped on the loom They bomb with justification or pique and evil frustration or vile confrontation.

Have a ball kill’em all. Don’t seek emancipation

**

27

Wisdom

Wisdom is a fearful painful dream With age it is become

This tearful yearnful silent scheme Knowing why we are dumb

Wisdom comes then we go

And wisdom, comes again

Then new wisdom, comes again

To all that dwell below

A terrible beauty

Knowledge and duty

Keeping it to you and me

Knowledge is mute and free

**

28

Thoughts at Christmas time Sea dreaming  dream seeming

Thee and Me’thing

Me and Thee’ming

Holidays and high days You me

and Apple pie days

December 2022

29

GENTLEMEN

GENTLEMEN all. This ref’s had the gall to cry ‘offside’!

No not football - playing away from home How gentlemanly is it to sexually roam you huff and you puff about fair play and stuff

About respect your dignity your honour When your wife is expecting or your girlfriend’s upset do you shower such care upon her?

. . . . . Not much

**

30

ROMEOS  in memoriam Rob’s gone John’s gone just we few We of the happy few the Romeo Crew We met to lunch and chew the fat Now Time is wielding the winnow hat Happy Fridays, Old Boy Fridays, Guinness, chips, apple-pie days

Great to talk gossip chat, John and Rob fuelled all of that

Time to say goodbye tho’ memories live when they are gone

We’ve mulled it over, just moving on . . . .

1st July 2023

**

31

Dreaming

Sitting in the sunshine

listening to the birds

across the garden calling

laughing children’s words

sounds of horses trotting

cuckoo far away

sounds that summers coming

closer day by day

cherry blossom falling

apple blossom too

Summer-time and tractors galling Pasturing pestering threshering through 17th March 2014

last edit 13Nov 2023

**

32

Chairmen

Chairmen spare men fighting bears hands bare men Large men barge men shagging Miss  de Farge men Sad men Cad men never knew their dad men Glum men some men never knew their mum men Ladies Sadies drinking at O’Grady’s Big lady petite

Charlady elite

Camellia lady deceit

Women swimmin’ moon and stars a’dimmin’

Schmidt men hit men always in the pit men Smythe men blithe men helping ladies writhe men

Pit men bus men gardeners in a truss men Farm men harm men putting on the charm men

33

Pie men high men they may live or die men Drivers skivers just love those North Sea divers Hive men live men Daddy lets them drive men Fry men cry men had a second try men Went home and made their mothers cry men Fold maids bold maids living to be old maids Bridesmaids ladies maids burning in Orleans maids

laid maids paid maids time makes them fade maids

Milk maids silk maids loving Acker Bilk maids

Among men Tong men going for a song men Strong men long men smoking from a bong men

Strive men live men keeping love alive men Dead men bed men queer in the head men Lovely men jubbly men.....just men 34

Band of Rain

A band of rain met a Band of Brothers Then the Sally Army Band took a stand A clutch of others and a lost MP

Brought us to our knees And

The covid; putin-rancid

The globe’s economies chancing

The weather helping not at all

Whenever Americans sneeze

A cold comes lancing and prancing

13th September 2023 (at Craven Arms) 35

Peerless Youth Reckless rude and peerless youth fearless fearsome in black-white truth Reckless feckless

foibles fetishes frenzies of youth fearlessly frenetic foolhardy youth Tattooed and pierced, holes in every place Tabooed and coerced, skin which has no grace Mobile phones plus ear-buds ignoring, non-aware Compassing consumer goods, no compassion to spare

Lassoed drones and young bloods, guys and guys don’t care

36

After 7th October 2023

Tell me it’s a joke

That you’ve snorted too much coke That you really haven’t thought it through too well

That you haven’t really thought it through at all

Bereft of human kindness you sent some souls to hell

Filled with hate and mindless in time you’ll take a fall

Where have all the adults gone

Leaving Angels to the bomb

Left them to the bombing throng Who’d rather kill than right a wrong 37

With Gods and petty leaders who Get the nod from moneyed bottom-feeders The puny petty people who say “the will of god”

The thirteen billion year deity whose will you claim to fill

You seem to think needs help at you’re nod To rape and maim and kill

You’re god not palpable but capable of ending your life and mine

Our Mothers. Fathers. Offspring. With all our line

That a billions of years intelligence needs help From a wrought from dust inelegance You that evolved just yesterday you curse and scream and yelp

38

Bellicose and arrogant you think you’ve learned to dance

The will’s of Gods’ need no invite from Man to kill this earth’s creations

They will and they can make still this earth’s vocations, without you . . .

. . . whelp!

**

39

When I’m really old

I looked at this page, it was empty I was editing like mad, it was empty I needed the text of a poem to tempt me what rhymes with empty. Pre-empt me I needed a beard trim. So un-kempt me When my glass is full it won’t prevent me From drinking a lot and filling this spot With words and a glass which is half M.T.

Brian Grix 4th April 2024

**

40

HELLO CHILDREN OF THE WORLD

How do you like the inheritance we've given you?

Those hideous skin diseases; bleeding gums, teeth, loose in sockets; lost finger-nails and hair, Isn't radiation sickness fun? just see how much we Care

We gave you these presents, we, your doting Parents

With eyes wide open and minds tight shut Will your children have such toys?

Survive their infancy?

Will children be possible for you?

Will you know such joys?

What a world yours’ could have been save for our wilful folly

Paradise again on earth you might have seen All we can say is sorry

41

Technology your friend? Technology your end?

Why can't East live in harmony with west?

No!! "dissimilar" cultures breed unrest Could detente' prolong your life maybe make you man and wife

Your future isn't yet so bleak

stand and fight us don't be meek grasp your chances while you may defy us now and win your way Your strength in numbers and in youth is the voice this World must hear without that voice,

. . without that voice...

you'll die in fear some time in the  1980s

**

42

To Sean: December 2023 in memoriam So-long Sean old friend; my confessor Living in the presbytery years and years therein Thank-you for your sage advice, your ready grin

A heartfelt Thank you to my Lord’s assessor Bonhomie and wisdom quietly dispensed Lively spoken instance sane old common sense So many good years’ homilies-of-charm, smiles and nods that made us, kept us, feeling pleased and warm

43

Bless our Haunton enclave keep us free from sin Now that Sean has left us just his lovely grin His many good and busy years working hard for us

Haunton’s loss is Heaven’s gain he didn’t like a fuss

13012024

**

44

CalMac

Wet cold, windy cold.

Raining blowing laughing,

when the sun came Smiling then and shows Lewis and that day of rainbows

Clare was there and Gill

Beryl me, alas no Bill

One isle Harris and Lewis

So far north away from memory

Comes the smile to banish worries Friendly Paul and lovely Billy

Sea rock sky all the skerries

Quiet starry when the night is stilly 45

Caledonian MacBrayne CalMac Ferrying and fleeting

To and fro competing ocean currents beating Winds and waves repeating

All the whiles coming back

Mainland Scotland's greeting

**

46

WE'VE

What else is there to say ?

We've talked about the weather and our lousy rates of pay We've talked about the cost of living and what the papers say We've solved the World's dilemmas and We've still got time for more but We've never quite worked out why countries go to war 47

We've had another cuppa'

and the discussions gathered strength but We've never quite decided why the third Worlds at arms length We've aired the whys and wherefores and the arguments go round but We've still no firm idea why no answers can be found 48

We've worked for our employers till the stones have all turned red till the stress has nigh erupted and we know We'll soon be dead time is going faster now still We've plenty more to say if only there were twice, four and twenty hours in any given day 49

When We've finished talking the World should happier be

because of faith, and hope, and our charity

then comes the realisation of course this is no law,....because, what is there to say that We've never said before?

Brian Grix 1st January 1980

**

50

The Members of Parliament An M.P's work is never done

M.P.s always have such fun

They will say as only they are able, that they can serve you,

while seated at your table.

This political dichotomy sublime without fair reason or good rhyme is the Right Hon’s stock-in-trade VOTE FOR US

We're all well paid.

51

Our raison d'être is fair shares for all but only after we've had our haul Those papers green; though some are white will keep us sitting all through the night.

And if representation honest and fair is left in our glib and tender care, 52

then abandon hope you Punters; voters, We're really only table d'hote's We will take your money and run for Public Office is much fun.

Our own pet schemes,

into the statute book We'll sow, and weed and rake and hoe hoe ho'

53

Off your-bum

Unless you have an hour or two to spare Never ask a person over seventy how they‘re feeling

They will bend your ear about their care Their catalogue of woe will have you reeling What with pace-makers and water tabs Their sciatica and eczema scabs Bunions corns fallen arches

Oh and how their medicine parches 54

They will tell you all about the NHS

The Doctors’ grimace concealed

You’ll hear about their sore abscess And how their op’ scars healed

Take no notice that’s what their Doctor does Pay no attention there’s risk of boredom Whip off their poultice make them buzz Don’t smile, just say ‘be brisk-off yourbum’

2nd March 2024

**

55

Dear Aisha

Forgive us dear Aisha it wasn’t that we didn’t care

Just very much the case that we All and everyone, everywhere

Our votes we squandered naïve and free Our duty of care was scarce reposed With eyes and minds so tightly closed To your sad fortune we trusted Parliament And you, sorry You, . . You lost the argument In your memory I shall try to find Some act some pact with all I can Plead that my fellows keep you in mind When we finally joyfully enact that ban February 2024

**

56

Plastic bags

Bagged household goods heaped; all piled, against the courtyard wall

Carpet rolls everything wrapped in plastic tied up with strings

But nothing’s what it seems. Not at all In my head some bell rings

Shoed, trainered, sandaled, feet, poking out from these makeshift Body bags

The Worlds’ financial currency - body bags Mute invisible coin - body bags The guilty shame of a body-bag fuelled pension

The humiliating blame of our offhand pretension

Fat pension pots from gilts, stocks and shares Fatal misapprehension tilts to shocks deaths and nil cares

57

Global commerce good for business . . .es False noble promise, the fool of  life Plastic wrappers strung in fatal strife Feeble planners should seek forgiveness . . .es Brian Grix 10th March 2024

**

58

Notes on the poems: Some of these poems were, quick - off-the-cuff  -

creations. Usually being scribbled on a scrap of paper, quite likely on a café table or in a meeting. They would have been transcribed to a word processor, a day or a hundred days after.

Hence the lack of a date and I will have forgotten just what triggered the thought... there are a lot of these in this book - sorry!

Some of these poems were memorable enough for me to think to date them and remember why.

The following is an attempt to give the reader some idea about what I was thinking, when I penned these memorable-to-me pieces. I have marked them with **

59

Bankers and cankers:

It’s in the way that you say it and what you really think to yourself when saying it.

weasel and stoat: wily, shifty, vicious, mean, A life’s about:

I think I was harking back to when My Love and I were first married; struggling financially,  worried about mortgage payments, deciding what was going to be best in the long run for us and the children.

Enjoying life.

Can you hear the bluebells ringing: A bit of zeugma here, bells ring but blue ones don’t - do they?

60

Old advice:

The clue is in the title’ said the old guy A Robin in Pat’s tree:

Pat my neighbour has an architecturally perfect tree - shape, size and symmetrical; which when back-lit by early sunlight, seems to shine. Amidst this aura one morning I saw a Robin;  self-important little thing, chest out and trilling; I wondered what he/she might have planned for the day. I told it - Take this day and use it, form it, mould it, choose it.

All our Dads:

Seventy eight years after the Second World War, I finally saw the light.

61

My dad suffered from PTSD, I’m quite sure: Johnny Williams’ dad was weird, Woody’s dad died in that war (backing into a spinning prop) the thirty, forty and fifty year olds were quiet at the MEB, where I started as an apprentice, through them I learned the blackest humour. They had seen active service of one sort or another; they rarely smiled.

Jock; used to come in our pub, the Raven, he’d been tortured by the japs.

Billy’s dad wasn’t there, in his head, just his Mom. Louis Hubble, Tommy Tittlemouse, Bodger Jones - all mental.

Little Johnny - Irish Johnny - always fighting and drunk.

Uncle Simon  -  army medic . . . . .

We were always quiet around the dads.

George Taylor. Commando. Knew how to kill; 62

had done.

Uncles, Sid and Fred and Jim - left no kids.

Freddy Freer ate monkey in the Burmese jungle.

Chris Ainslie:

One of life's lovely people; someone you know you are privileged to have known.

(6th February Turkey’s earthquake) Patriotism:

Nostalgia for the Great Britain I used to know. That time when we had grown-ups in the Houses of Parliament.

People who had brought us through the second world war and earned the right to govern.

63

Deep in our bowels: How I view our current crop of ministers in H-o-P

Holy rain that’s the spirit:

During and following a very wet hike, in the Lake District

Convent kitchens:

Just listening to people and what they say, makes my day.

Norma’s garden:

Norma was always tending her garden and feeding the birds, accompanied by Toby her elderly pup. I looked at her garden after she had died and felt sadness; that she wouldn’t be around to see the results of her labours in the Spring of 2023. She and husband Bill were the best.

64

Graftless:

Graft - wrongfully benefiting.

A party-less M.P. selection system, using a similar mechanism to the jury selection method; which would legally require every fit adult, to serve a 4 year term in government, after which they would never again be allowed to serve.

War horses:

Using the aforementioned M.P. selection system; all around the world, the common men and women, may contrive a warless world.

Wisdom:

Becomes a burden as one ages.

Succeeding generations find it over and over.

Ever and ever.

65

Gentlemen:

Bemoans the loss of chivalry and gentlemanly behaviour

Romeos:

John and Rob two great blokes.

R.O.M.E.O. Retired old men eating out.

Dreaming:

Nothing to do with St Patrick’s day - see date, although I might have had a pot of Guinness at my side sleepily in the sunshine, when I heard children laughing. Simple pleasures.

After 7th October 2023:

Didn’t we all have an opinion?

66

Hello Children of the world: Remind you of something - anything -

anytime?

Father Sean Turley:

United States Army Air force Catholic Padre; came to our parish to minister to us for about 25 years. Wise, pithy, sage and an endearing person to boot.

Calmac:

After a visit to our lifelong dear friend Gill Morris on the isle of Lewis. Bill Morris, Gill’s man, was my Best Man in 1965.

We’ve:

Probably my earliest poem.

67

Sorry to the Monster: On the bus to school travelled the monster; poor man was probably badly burned in WW2. I was very fearful if I got on the same bus; his looks frightened me.  . . . Still do.

Off Your Bum:

All medical  centres’ ten minute rule; ten minutes to re-tell your Doctor about your state of health! Where did all the listening go? Better that a Doctor know their patient and the disease, rather than the disease and the patient.

68

Dear Aisha:

A young girl whose piteous and pitiably, short experience of this world in her war-torn country, was one of hunger, thirst and loss.

Her aunt had to take her to a hospital, rather than her parents, who had to stay home to protect their other children.

The medics gave her only a 10% chance of survival - she weighed 7 kilos and she was eight years of age. A ban on all armaments, might  reduce the world’s children’s chances of  suffering these sins of ours - yours and mine. How many body bags has your pension cost? And how many body-bags has mine cost?              Scarce reposed = half asleep Did Aisha die?

I haven’t tried to find out. I don’t want to know I suppose. Her picture, that poor wee mite’s picture; I have never seen any human being in such abject fear and misery as that little girl

69

Every Mother on earth should be protesting . . .

LOUDLY AND ANGRILY

Plastic bags:

I hope you get the drift.

When I’m really old

Signs of increasing annum Domini.

Thinking the editing was finished; came to this page - empty! Felt I should put something in it.

70

Thank you for reading my poems.

I hope you have been - for the most part at least - entertained,

enthralled and amused but not,

over-confused.

Kindest regards,

Grixie May 2024

71

Modern poems

published in

my Autumn