Two Poems by Strider Marcus Jones
I’M GETTING OLD NOW
i’m getting old now-
you know,
like that tree in the yard
with those thick cracks
in its skinbark
that tell you
the surface of its lived-in secrets.
my eyes,
have sunk too inward
in sleepless sockets
to playback images
of ghosts-
so make do with words
and hear the sounds
of my years in yourself.
childhood-
riding a rusty three-wheel bike
to shelled-out houses bombed in the blitz,
then zinging home zapped in mud
to wolf down chicken soup
over lumpy mashed potato for tea-
with bare feet sticking on cold kitchen lino
i shivered watching the candle burn down
racing to finish a book i found in a bin-
before Mam showed me her empty purse
and robbed the gas meter-
the twenty shillings
stained the red formica table
like pieces of the man’s brains
splattered all over the back seat
of his symbolic limousine
as i watched history brush out her silent secrets.
PULSATING FLOWERS
so define me
now you know
the nature of my ways.
understand me
somehow, slow-
love is more, than what it says:
frequent pulsating flowers,
pollenning my hands and inky breath;
softening, those quiet hours
through life and death.
close-ups and downs
that fit together,
challenging the bounds
in bonds that stretch forever:
postures in sounds
and elemental words
of surprise and wit-
found in tea leaf grounds
that make reluctant lovers
come to it.
Copyright © Strider Marcus Jones, 2015.
Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and ex civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry are modern, traditional, mythical, sometimes romantic, surreal and metaphysical http//www.lulu.com/spotlight/stridermarcusjones1. He is a maverick, moving between forests, mountains and cities, playing his saxophone and clarinet in warm solitude.
In 2014, his poetry has been published in A New Ulster/Anu Issue 27, The Screech Owl, Catweazle Issue 5, Calliope and The Gambler magazines; Degenerates Voices For Peace-Vagabonds: Anthology Of The Mad; Killer Whale Journal; Dagda Publishing; The Huffington Post USA; Writer’s Ezine; The Poets Haven-Vending Machine Poetry for Change Volume 5; Sonic Boom Journal and The Open Mouse.
Banner photograph: Copyright © Jo Mazelis, 2015.