Poems in The punch

My appearance in The punch is unconnected with Punch or the London Charivari, the humorous magazine that died twice round about the millennium. The punch is an Indian magazine published online, and it has a poetry issue once a year. 

The contributions of mine that they accepted were all written in response to workshop prompts from Jo Bell.

Aired

The ionosphere's

temperature changes spurred

me in my teens: Europe's

Cold War hate to listen to,

pocket radio by night.

Greenhouse gases lie

miles below that: troposphere,

closest to earth, smeared

with our heat and travelling.

Our smoke turned to a blanket.

See me reading up

which of those two things is which,

the Cold War long gone.

Radio's ways to listen

are more, and the hates they air.

Answers

No, not unlisted, listed in a spreadsheet.

They had to filter lines and hide columns.

They had to copy to a data stick.

They crouched over the screen in a guesthouse bedroom.

They crouched over it Darlington to Peterborough.

They crouched over it in two waiting rooms.

They got the sums ready for off in time.

Best not admonish them to keep spreadsheets

in strict perspective, means to a workplace end. 

On Attempting to Transcribe the Calls of Birds

Sea! Sea! ship ship ship ship

Gulls deep inland feel the nip.

chopakaching? chipakachong!

Phonemes, spelling, away from song.

teeoo chapacheecheechee

The kite sounded like that to me.

teeoo wintu

shwipu shwipu

What birds sound like that to you?

chibatchbrrrrr

Not nailed accurate but nailed tear.

shfwh shfwh shfwh shfwh

The wipe sound has not rhyme enough.

 

Reality Check

Is it rope, or a repurposed something,

hose, say, or heavy-duty power cable?

It’s grey, with thin green line, and holds those bushes

back from the path.  People don’t turn hoses

or power cords to that.  But the reel’s mount –

yes, rope reels can have mounts.  They say at sound

of hoofbeats think horses not zebras.  Mounted

rope reels are horses.  Not real horses, no.

Mounted rope reels horses, repurposed power

cables zebras. Hose repurposed to hold

bushes zebras stroke unicorns.  That’s not

zebras stroking unicorns.  They wouldn’t.

It’s between zebras and unicorns, 

or both zebras and unicorns together.

And reading this are many who have seen

mounted thick grey rope with a stripe of green.

 

Stones

Something to do with photocopying.

Something to do with tapping babies’ noses.

Something to do with social distancing.

Something to do with singing in the street.

“There’s been an allegation made.”

Something to do with bikes and toucan crossings.

Something to do with things on the computer.

Something to do with money, with work money.

Something to do with that self-service checkout.

“There’s been an allegation made.”

Something to do with church and the young people.

Something to do with fifty years ago.

Something to do with social media.

Something to do with XR friends and demos.

“There’s been an allegation made.”