where we are – Spangle McQueen

 

we can only start from here

no blaming the illness

myself

or all the others

just start here with the breath

where the succulent’s still

unplanted

and the sunshine soothes an aching temple

and turquoise sky fills my mind

bliss

a neighbour bangs on the window

for attention

the black cat slips off the fence

I open my eyes and wave

reset the clock

start again

focus on the breath

try to stay in the moment

while an ice-cream van

is playing the tune

about a pony

a feather

macaroni

 

 

Spangle McQueen is a happy grandma and hopeful poet living in Sheffield.

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August 18, 2019August 18, 2019 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: blame, bliss, breath, cat, clock, colour, creative, creativity, eyes, illness, mind, moment, nature, poem, Poetry, senses, Sheffield, sky, sound, Spangle McQueen, start, sun, writing Leave a comment

Over – Spangle McQueen

 

He is explaining

supernumerary

rainbows to me –

 

how it’s all about

raindrop size

distribution.

 

‘Sunlight reflects

not only from inside

the falling droplets

 

but interferes with

wave phenomena.

It’s similar to ripples

 

when someone

throws a stone in

a pond,’ he says.

 

And I am impressed

with his knowledge

of atmospheric optics

 

but I’d only asked

how there could ever be

too many rainbows.

 

 

Spangle McQueen is a happy grandma and hopeful poet living in Sheffield.

February 9, 2019 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: creative, creativity, elements, explanation, interference, knowledge, nature, poem, Poetry, question, rain, rainbows, raindrops, reflection, ripples, Sheffield, Spangle McQueen, sunlight, UK, water, wave, weather, writing Leave a comment

I wish I’d studied palaeontology – Spangle McQueen

 

They used to teach that colour would never be detected in fossils.

But now it’s someone’s job to reveal the complexions

of dinosaurs, to unravel the hints about hues,

examining melanosomes and spherical organelles,

to conclude that, ‘You don’t have an orange and white tail

for nothing’. It’s someone’s job to pore over fossilised

forearms looking for the trace of quill knobs

or to separate spiral twists of fibres to analyse Jurassic

dandruff and to tell us with authority that these creatures

shed their skin in flakes. I wish I’d studied palaeontology

instead of forensic psychology. Primitive plumage

interests me more than psychopathy and the science

of empathy ever could.

 

 

Spangle McQueen is a happy grandma and hopeful poet living in Sheffield.

January 20, 2019 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: colour, creative, creativity, creatures, dinosaurs, empathy, fibres, fossils, history, job, nature, palaeontology, past, plumage, poem, Poetry, science, Sheffield, skin, Spangle McQueen, study, UK, writing Leave a comment

Eva – Spangle McQueen

 

“Hope” is the thing with feathers – Emily Dickinson

 

If I left you a feather

preserved

in Burmese amber

would you treasure

 

this coelurosaur’s gift

wrapped in semi-

translucent resin?

Would you release

 

the ferrous

traces of my blood –

hopeful of

cloning?

 

Or would you reject

this humble

hollow-tailed thing –

ignore me – in favour of

an angel’s token?

 

 

Spangle McQueen is a happy grandma and hopeful poet living in Sheffield.

November 15, 2018 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: angel, blood, cloning, creative, creativity, feather, gift, history, hope, life, nature, past, poem, Poetry, rejection, Sheffield, Spangle McQueen, time, token, traces, treasure, UK, writing Leave a comment

Choking – Jonathan Butcher

 

I remember you in the school

dinner room, choking on the

corned beef sandwiches that

the dinner ladies forced down

your throat; waste held no

relevance between those walls.

 

I remember you sat alone at break

times, hands and stones slapped

across your face like whiplashes,

for an injustice you were far from

capable of committing.

 

And you walked home, your head bowed,

through those orange bricked streets

that framed our morning walks, alongside

the neglected grass verges like miniature

jungles we never dared to enter.

 

Those doors opened once again, before

the sun set behind the grey roofs and dust

like trees, you stand and stare once more

in that hallway mirror that hangs rusted,

and only slightly cracked.

 

Jonathan Butcher is a poet based in Sheffield, England. He has had poetry appear in various print and online journals including Ink, Sweat and Tears, Elbow Room, Your One Phone Call, Mad Swirl, The Transnational and others. His second chapbook ‘Broken Slates’ was published by Flutter Press.

April 11, 2017 by foxglovejournal Categories: Poetry, UncategorizedTags: childhood, creative, creativity, England, home, humanity, Jonathan Butcher, memory, mirror, nature, pain, past, poem, Poetry, school, Sheffield, streets, suffering, sun, UK, writing, Yorkshire, youth Leave a comment

Weekend – Jonathan Butcher

 

Hapless at weekends, yet still with that

contrived joy; in the beer gardens and car

parks, where perfume and aftershave still

smell fresh against fake fur and denim.

 

The hiss of music from the outside speakers,

that threaten to fall, but never damage conversation.

The bottles strewn across badly mounted tables

and tree torn, cracked pavements.

 

The warmth of this room blocks out winter, yet

its shell remains fragile, like rusted gates that

no longer retain the strength to block out the

weakest of imposters.

 

And again we glide without protest, our voices

placed only where needed, our feet as nimble

as ever; tripping over curbs now an art form,

that at last we have finally mastered.

 

Jonathan Butcher is a poet based in Sheffield, England. He has had poetry appear in various print and online journals including Ink, Sweat and Tears, Elbow Room, Your One Phone Call, Mad Swirl, The Transnational and others. His second chapbook ‘Broken Slates’ was published by Flutter Press.

April 5, 2017April 5, 2017 by foxglovejournal Categories: Poetry, UncategorizedTags: creative, creativity, England, feelings, fragility, humanity, Jonathan Butcher, joy, leisure, music, perfume, poem, Poetry, senses, Sheffield, shell, spirit, time, UK, voices, warmth, winter, writing Leave a comment