Blocked

I’m all at sea
I’m a stingless bee
I’m a pulled-up weed
I’m an unsown seed
I’m a bow without an arrow
I’m a hawk without a sparrow
I’m a cat without a mouse
I’m a boarded-up house
I’m a glove without a hand
I’m a brassed-off band
I’m a derailed carriage
I’m a broken marriage
I’m a north without a south
I’m a toothless, tongueless mouth.

*
[First appeared on the Fire River Poets website]

Cheesed Off

O gentle mother Moo

look down from your skyful of daisies

and pity us poor cheeses.

Consider if you will

the cruel grill

the toast

our fair flesh bubbling to a crust.

Share the despair

of Camembert the ennui of Brie

the Danish Blues.

*
[First published in the Norwich Writers Circle Anthology]

The Lamentable Life and Death of a Fart

Little Houdini, suddenly outside
the shackles of bone, the bondage of flesh and clothing,

meets no applause; bulbs in the room like a genie,

granting nobody’s wish; wanders the airways like
the soul of a dead sinner, until he comes
to the Gates of Fragrance. St. Peter sends him packing.

Rebounding to earth,
he meets the Priestess of Hygiene. She advances,

holding an aerosol, like a crucifix.

*
[First published in Orbis 97]

Anthony Watts has been writing ‘seriously’ for about 40 years. He has won prizes in poetry competitions and has had poems published in magazines and anthologies. His latest collection is The Shell-Gatherer. His main interests are poetry, music, walking and binge thinking – activities which he finds can be happily combined.