Urban Pilgrims

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Amber Prison by Donato Giancola

Urban Pilgrims

“Nobody owns a pet in Istanbul, they just befriend the local strays.”

– The Local Planet Guide

The dogs are stays and tramps and ferals,
Picking scraps, surviving perils,
Living in gaps on tufts of ground –
Though the locals seem to like them hanging round.

But who knows what diseases lurk,
And how much needed council work
To catch and spay and then release ?
Is that why vagrant number still increase ?

They may look cute in tourist spots,
But less so in the poorer lots –
Traffic-tangling, always breeding –
Some look starved, but overall succeeding.

We wonder where the pups are hidden,
As they lounge around, unbidden.
Have they fleas ?  We’d best not breach –
So stroking-wise, they’re just out of our reach.

And now official policy
Has moved to stop them roaming free,
To round them up and put them down
To kick the mange and rabies out of town.

But then there are the feral cats
About the mosques and laundromats –
They’re just as cute and just as cherished,
But they’re far less likely to be perished.

They too are mating uncontrolled,
But always act as good as gold
Just lazing round the grand bazaars,
Despite their secret ticks and worms and scars.

Helios

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Kepler 16-b by Joby Harris

Helios

The Sun is a restless god,
Driving his chariot ever on.
The dawn won’t last for long,
Before it’s gone, to welcome the morning
Where the queen of night once trod.
Before we know, it’s midday,
And his heat is full upon us –
Then into his afternoon we rush,
And all too soon, the growing dusk,
As once again he slips away.

A 19th century shell cameo brooch, as sold by Roseberys

Passport

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Ceres by Liz de la Torre

Passport

The whole world is spherical – I know, because I trekked it –
Always passing clockwise,
Passing to the left.
Onto America, vast and eclectic –
Just roaming, you guys,
Always heading West.
Showing my specifics at ev’ry border-post,
Always passing clockwise,
As tradition goes.
Across the Pacific, port-side to island-coast
From volcanic highs,
To sweet laguna lows.
Onto Malaysia, striding like a dandy,
Always passing clockwise,
Half the way around.
Upon mainland Asia, I passed Mr Brandy,
Racing for his prize,
While always Eastward-bound.
But West for I once more, and headlong through the horse-steppe,
Always passing clockwise,
Most polite and deft.
Home through the back door, from my mammoth schlep,
For etiquette, it lies
In moving to the left.

Thanks AI, you didn’t do too bad this time…

Wordwear

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Wordwear

Poems are delicate shoes,
And prose is sturdy boots –
The footwear that we choose
Is governed by its use:

So when we need to tread with care
Or dance between ideals,
We may choose verse, and lace a pair
Of taps or kitten heels.

For poems are stilettoes,
Sharp and with a click –
While prose is from the ghettos,
Stout and with a kick.

So when we need more tongue and strength,
Where mud and thorns compete,
We’ll don our boots to march at length,
In plain and simple feet.

Exotic Ice

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Asparagus by Katharine Baxter

Exotic Ice

Twenty thousand years ago,
Then all we see from here
Was nothing but Devensian –
All white and cold and clear.
It took a thousand years of snow
To lay the drifts so deep –
A slab of ice far denser than the hills,
And fast more steep.

Welcome to blighted Blighty,
Frozen over, unawares,
Though the Southern downs were merely tundra,
Roamed by mammoths and bears.
But the thaw would bring a mighty change,
An invasive species, exotic and strange,
To cast the native beasts asunder –
Humans, expanding their range.

The Devensian British-Irish Ice Sheet by Andy Emery

The High-Shod Strut

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The High-Shod Strut

Once a-time, a set of boots
Would mean a sturdy pair –
A sign of well-protected feet
Parading down the lane or street.
So from the crushing jacks of brutes,
Or workmen’s safety-wear –
They took their time to implement,
Behind the laces of intent.

But now a-days, we’ve turned the boot
Into a quick affair –
We slip them on and zip them up
To wash the car or walk the pup.
We find there is no substitute
For easy mid-calf flair,
We’ve sheathed each shin and sprung each arch –
We’ve filled our boots, so let’s quick march !

Photo by Kristina Paukshtite on Pexels.com

Basilica Cistern

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An illustration from Gothic Architecture Improved by Batty Langley, with engravings by Thomas Langley

Basilica Cistern

The columns are far too carved
To just be buried neck-deep in water –
They have to have been acquired from older stock,
Reused to order.
What once held temple pediments,
Perched on Corinthian tops,
Are now a vaulted forest
Lurking underneath the shops.
There swim some carps between the bases
Of this Roman reef,
That graze the algae off the wishful coins
That glint beneath,
While downside-up Medusas watch
The tourist lines go by –
They’ll still be here a thousand years from now,
Through wet and dry.

Inktober ?  What, already…?

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Alas, yes.  So here are this year’s entries.  I’ll be honest, a few of these are a bit shoe-horny, where I had more than one idea for a word, so one of my verses would have to find a new home…

Remember as ever, these are just meant to be an idle doodle, not Pulitzer-bait.  They’re also trying to be fun, so let’s keep it light.  Also returning from previous years are the the random artworks that barely relate but are a good showcase for some interesting finds.

Discover

Boots

Exotic

Trek (although it’s really another ‘boots’ poem)

Passport

Sun

Nomadic (bit of a stretch, this one)

Remote

Roam

Guidebook

Journal

Drive (as in motivation)

Uncharted

Rhinoceros

Camp (a real stretch, this one)

Rust

Expedition (though really another ‘landmark’)

Scarecrow

Camera

Road

Jumbo

Navigator

Violin

Landmark (and also a bridge into my Halloween poems)

Englischer Waltzer

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Englischer Waltzer

Eins zwo drei, eins zwo drei,

Beefeaters, wellingtons, toads-in-the-hole,
Morris and molly and May-round-the-pole,
Our feet may be English, but German our soul,
As we spin to the Saxony stride.

Volkswagens, Porsches, and Beamers and Mercs,
Beethoven, Handel, and Kraft-at-the-works,
Our ears may be English, but German our quirks,
As we turn to the Teutonic tide.

Some say Bavaria,
Some say Vienna –
The where and the when are
Long lost in the swirl.
Spinnen and spinnen,
In cotton and linen –
From Bath to Berlin,
In a wurlitzer’s whirl.

Fish-and-chip, tea-and-jam, bubble-and-squeak,
Stiff-upper sorries and tongues-in-our-cheek
Our words may be English, but German our speak,
As we pulse to the Prussian parade.

Rottweiler, doberman, alsatian, spitz,
The Hamburger Hans and the Frankfurter Fritz
Our names may be English, but German our glitz,
As we shimmy with Swabian suede.

Wange to wange,
From oompah to banger –
It’s no doppelganger,
But dancing for reel.
Schneller and schneller,
In ev’ry bierkeller –
It’s no tarantella,
But spooling its spiel.

The Magnolia Jungle

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Photo by Thu Dung Nguyen on Pexels.com

The Magnolia Jungle

Indoor cats grow fat
About the flat,
From all their lack of pace –

They spend all morning sat
Upon the mat,
Just cleaning fur and face.

Then mooch-in for a chat,
Or stroke and pat,
As though they own the place –

And sleep upon a hat,
Or idly bat
The drapes with easy grace,

They’ve got it far too soft and easy,
Never getting cold or sneezy,
Staring out the windows, queasy,
At the thought of empty space.

Hiding from the wet and breezy,
Doing as they damn well pleasy
Till they’re corpulent and wheezy,
Hiding in their cushy base.

Indoor cats grow fat,
Without a rat,
To give them cause to chase –

But they don’t care for that,
They run this flat –
Or prowl, in any case…