Poems

INTERNET SHOPPING

I bought him when internet shopping,
His emails and pics make me smile;
He naughtily flirts through the ether,
Keeping his distance the while.

He bought me when internet shopping
And says that he won’t use the phone,
Cos of course we can be who we want to
With written word contact alone.

We share our whole life in our emails,
But we’ve not had the courage to meet –
I thought it was going to happen
Then both of us found we’d cold feet.

I don’t even know what he looks like –
His photos are ‘stories and lies’,
But I guess we’re getting good value
With all that our wariness buys.

So we’ll spend years and years swapping emails,
I’ll enthral him, but won’t share the joke –
I’ve been sending him my sister’s pictures…
Well, I’d hate him to know I’m a bloke!

AN OPEN BOOK

When I said that I would lay myself bare to you -
that there were no secrets,
that I’m an open book

you got to read me:
 

And by the time you had deciphered me
through wine stains,
print faded from too much wear,
pages stuck together with tears,
whole chapters blank from memory loss and pain,
scrawled margin notes by those with their own interpretations
and disappointed reviews from unreal expectations -

there really wasn’t much that was legible,
there really wasn’t much worth reading - 



Time to start a whole new volume.