maltpress

Yep - I’ve done my first poem in about two or three years. Because of Stephen Fry’s excellent book The Ode Less Travelled (look it up on Amazon, it’s a good read). I’ve not done it using any particular techniques - I very rarely do, I’m a painfully unskilled poet - but I enjoyed writing it. I hope you enjoy reading it.

NAMED AFTER A BIRD

We live opposite lives, me
and Gregory.
Just out of step.
At night he warms me up
And by morning the opposite is true;
From red to blue and back
(Him, not me).

I fill him at night from the kettle
And twelve hours later it’s me
Plus milk and sugar
Which would make him sticky
And not enhance his action.

Sometimes we look at each other
Him with his unblinking
Felt eyes
And me with my watery alives
And we wonder how we lasted this long
Wanting different things.

But that’s what we need -
Me to fill him,
Him to warm me.
The perfect complimentary relationship
With a faint smell of rubber.