Today’s choice

Previous poems

Paul Short

 

 

 

Midnight Swingball

Sleep.
Elusive as lucid dreams.

Closed eyes teem wotsit-orange,
spiderweb scarlet &
thatch-brown

body      jerks                  like      a
swingball.

Conscience and subconscious
flailing paddles

back forward|forward back

body       jerks                 like       a
swing
ball.

Mind                   simmers            with                   breathless                         envy
at          the
creak-scratch

of

snoutswoons.

forward back | back forward

I try to surrender to exhaustion

body       jerks                 like       a
s
w
i
n
g
b
a
l
l.

 

Paul Short is a Pushcart and BOTN nominated poet from Newcastle upon Tyne. Paul’s work has appeared on BBC Upload, A Thousand Shades of Green Podcast and in Full House Literary, Broken Spine, Black Bough, Dust Poetry and more.

Sue Moules

Sings at the top of the bare-branched tree
an aubade to morning
welcomes the light,  
early spring, season of nest-making.

John Bartlett

mornings
I wake wary
of abundance
wondering why I’m still here
and then I recall
all the green leaves
with their hiding birds