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.

Marcus Filtered B&WStrider 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.