#NaPoWriMo2025 #Day18 #Detour

Detour

We missed the turn for Woodham Walter -
you laughed, said bugger it,
while Meat Loaf promised anything for love,
but not that, and we howled it too loud
to call Vic but weren’t making sense.

That summer was all good times -
boots off, feet in the grass, cider laughs,
hedgerows telling us we’re far from the smoke.
When you moved away, the road trips ended,
the signal’s thinner online, thread stretched but not snapped.

I keep that ride like a locket -
destination not as important as the journey.
you, me, Meat Loaf all agreeing that
There ain’t no Coupe de Ville
hiding at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box.

#NaPoWriMo2024 #Day18 #Donchawish

" Doncha wish you were like, not disabled?"

New born I was perfect –
though aren’t we all in our mother’s eyes?

Though there were signs in childhood,

nights were I slung myself from bed.

In my pre-teens, named
Dolly Daydream because my attention wandered.

Seventeen, first tonic clonic,
but anyone can have a one of seizure, right?

Once the wall was breached
by my brains own projectiles.

Seizures like sorrows did not
come as single spies.

Left behind, labelled disabled
a sixth form dropout.

Eighteen, my personal best
206 seizures in a fortnight.

Regrets?   Don’t get me wrong,
I think, maybe life is easier –

Though it’s trite to say
“My dis/ability is my superpower”.

It has it’s gifts, it’s insights.
I can advocate, like a devil.

#napowrimo2022 #day18 #sovereynetee

"Sovereynetee"

1. To smash that glass ceiling into a million, billion iddy, biddy pieces, oh, and equal pay for equal work would be great.

2. Political representation, we make up 51% of the population, visibility in corridors of power matters, and strong female leaders are needed to inspire a new generation of young women and girls.

3. Keep out of our reproductive organs and choices, a uterus doesn’t need policing, thanks. We are totally aware of their strange and mystical powers!

4. To be safe, to have rape and sexual assault taken seriously, and not to be twice victimised by the current legal system.

5. End casual everyday misogyny, no “lady” tortilla chips that are quiet, no locker room talk, no absolutely no “grabbing us by the pussy”. Catcalling, harassment, being passed over, of coffee runs, being barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen fixing you a sammich, expectations of shouldering all the emotional labour…it chip, chip, chips away at our equality, and quite frankly we're exhausted, let's embrace loudness, intersectionality, taking up space.

#collectingwordsandcreatingawordpool #NaPoWriMo2021 #day18

 

Collecting words and creating a wordpool
 
A line from a Levellers song.
“An old man collecting 50 beautiful words”
I had always envisioned some old timer
rock pooling with a net,
but fishing for words rather than crabs.
 
I imagined him calling over,
small children to marvel at
a particularly impressive specimen
“coddiwomple” or “nelipot”.
Their mother hovers a little anxiously.
 
It is a sad reflection,
that minds are suspicious,
but the words in the media
create distrust and division.
Tuning in instinct tells her all is well.
 
The children call her over.
They have caught a monster –
and they want her to see
a remarkable “brabble”
they contend about who caught it.
 
Pleading they ask if they can
take it home and keep it in a
wordpool in the back garden.
Mum acquiesces but they must
agree to feed and clean it out.

Smiling, she thanks the old
Man for his time and patience,
And he grins back knowing that
he has guided another generation
to a devotion to language.