Mary and Anny were looking in the wardrobe trying to find things to give to the charity shop . What’s this, cried Annie Oh my goodness, that is the shirt that Stan wore for our wedding It is very bright said Annie. Still in the 60s that was what people wore even men. and what is this black jacket over it? That is the jacket that I wore for Stan’s funeral. Goodness me .I hope it doesn’t make you feel sad to look at them now that you are all alone Well I’m not really all alone. I have got you and Dave and Emile.And several penfriends and my ex- work colleagues not to mention my sister and her offspring who are all very kind But that’s not the same as having a husband, Annie responded sadly. I should know I have lost three Where did you lose them, asked Mary.I know that your last one died mysteriously but what about the others? Well my first husband was a coal miner and I got tired of washing all his clothes because in those days there were no automatic washing machines. I left him and I married a builder who built was a very nice house out in the Peak District . He refused to have any children and I wanted children.I decided to leave him. then I am married my last husband, James. He didn’t die. her ran away with his sister-in-law but I did not want people to know that so I pretended he had died whilst on holiday Some people think you killed him and put him into the wheelie bin ,Mary I told her stupidly How ridiculous he was much too big to fit into a wheelie bin and I could not have lifted him up when he was a dead weight Ahahaha that’s very funny, the cat mewed , a dead weight. Did you kill him? No but I will when I find him again. I can’t get a divorce without revealing his sinful deeds and so I have to be a mistress and not a wife. Since Stan died I have no one to be a mistress to. I keep hoping that Mary will get married again but so far she has not bothered That is not as easy as you seem to think , said Mary Why not ?You are still very attractive you have lovely clothes and big blue eyes. you can do French provincial cooking and plain English cooking; you can speak 4 languages and explain quantum theory to anyone interested, and you are very good at playing the piano. Well if I am so wonderful where are all the men queueing up to offer me their hand in marriage? I don’t think men like clever women even when they are as beautiful and gorgeous as I am. I suppose that men don’t like women who know things that they don’t know. Well I know things nobody else knows like when I had my last menstrual period when I first used Tampax; when I lost my virginity which I’m still hoping to find again. How I set my hair on fire opening the door of the oven when I’d not cleaned it for 5 years ——-there’s lots of things I know that nobody else knows What are the things that someone would want to know , Annie asked her ? Well who knows what men want to know? Do they want to know that I have bought a pair of size 9 Nike trainers in pale lemon and I have darned the hole in a brown pleated skirt …….by the way, why do moths make the holes on the front of skirts? I am sure that a moth does not know the back from the front on your skirts maybe it’s the direction that you hang them in . perhaps you should hang them in the bathroom and throw some Dettol on them How do you throw Dettol. Mary said quizzically, do you mean spray? Oh,let’s not get bogged down in details. you know what I mean you need to clean the wardrobe Well you’re wrong there,Annie because when preparing a moth free environment what I should really do is bring in Emile’s offerings from the garden where he is burying them and put them in the wardrobe Oh my God meowed Emile I couldn’t bear to put my crap in the wardrobe I quite understand st. Mary and I have no intention of putting anybody’s crap in the wardrobe as it is full of clothes thaty are already mostly crap . I don’t agree with you said Annie; you have got some beautiful clothes on you always look really glorious Well everybody has a different taste and it’s unfortunate if you get married to somebody whose taste is the opposite of your own Did Stan like the way you dressed? Well when we got married we were very poor and so I could not do anything about it I had one skirt which I bought for a shilling in a jumble sale at a church in Holland Park; it was extremely short and Stan and liked it very much. then a blouse with long sleeves that I bought for sixpence in the same jumble sale.I had a pair of black trousers from Marks and Spencer’s and a big white jumper from up north and a grey dress that my landlady in Oxford gave me when she was collecting jumble . In North Oxford they have some very good quality jumble. I’m telling you I’ve never been so well dressed in my entire life as I was then .The only problem was that most of the dresses that she gave me were too big for me but I didn’t really worry about that I had a black dress which I wore to have dinner at the High Table in Hertford College I was about a size 6 and the dress was a size 12 but it is very good fabric and quite formal so I thought it would do Then I had a black dress with long sleeves which did fit me but it was very very short and showed most of my thighs; it was rather foolish of me to wear it to a mathematical conference in Dundee in April 1970. You see I didn’t think people would look at me I didn’t exist I was a blank I was nothing but when I saw people staring at me, at me I realised my error When Stan and I had more money I did have some clothes and he liked me to wear bright colours and good cloth that hung well so I did try to please him now and then otherwise I wore jeans with woollen jumpers over the top for warmth,Mary whispered silently I think you are the best dressed woman in Knittingham now .You look better than any middle class woman Go on, which class am I in as Mary humorously. Don’t say that I’ve got to marry somebody in the royal family as I can’t stand Balmoral You’ve never been there. No I don’t want to go there it’s full of midges and blackfly and the Queen goes riding on a horse. I have never ridden a horse in mylLife Mary said sadly How about the Rocking Horse that you had in the nursery That’s not quite the same as a real life horse is it ,Mary said angrily? Don’t upset me ;it’s not my fault that your mother couldn’t afford to buy you a horse’ it was very rare in those days to buy children horses especially when they lived in a two bedroom house with no bathroom inside I don’t think the horse would mind no bathroom as they don’t tend to get washed in the bathroom .I could have washed the horse in the backyard near the toilet and the Coal Shed Or by the air raid shelter Your parents couldn’t afford to buy the food for a horse; they need more than your leftovers That’s true, muttered Mary sadly, but you know I never really wanted a horse I did want a bicycle. Mum would not listen;l so I had to go to Oxford and that was very hard work studying mathematics for years and years so I got in to that course . Then I was able to get a bicycle like everybody else . Now I wish I just stayed at home and got a job working in a supermarket. Why screamed Anny you would have been very bored. not to mention the money I am never bored said Mary because my mind is very rich and I should have been able to daydream and lose myself in reveries while I was serving customers Well God serves those who serve themself Annie said ,to finish the conversation Wat rubbish said Mary;she stalked into the house and put the kettle on to make some breakfast tea even though it was supper time. What we need is a good hot drink and to keep quiet and stop talking all this nonsense. if God wants me to get married again then he will send men to find me and even though I have all these problems like I am very neurotic I am obsessed with details,I write poetry while others eat their dinner. I like mending holes in people’s clothes even if they don’t want me to mend them. I like to go to the toilet once every 4 hours and every 2 hours on Sundays or Good Friday.I like Jews and Muslims and anyone else who seems decent My God I think there’s something wrong with you ! So you’ve only just noticed replied Mary I’ve had something wrong with me ever since I was born But you wouldn’t know that when you were a baby. I suppose not said Mary wildly, but you know being a baby is not always a very pleasant experience,to put it mildly And so say all of us

Enjoy yourself at Christmas

Overspend on your credit cards getting presents that nobody really wants and and then buy ing things you do really want in the boxing day sales

Why not get all your relatives together in an overheated room have a lot of alcohol and have a great big row.

Watch  all sorts of rubbish on the television just because it’s Christmas when you would like to spend a time doing something that you really want to do but you think it’s rude so you make yourself comply after all it’s only once a year.

Jack opened the door and saw his elegantly thin wife Simone riding her bicycle along the pavement without  even holding the handlebars

That is absolutely and utterly wrong, he told her rudely yet patiently.

You are giving a bad example to the cat and to many other people who may be looking out of their windows or driving along this intriguingly bland suburban road

Louisa grinned like a Cheshire cat would

Don’t be  so ridiculous  she cried, cats can’t ride bicycles. Their legs are not long enough

You’re missing the more subtle point that you are breaking the law in a particular way Now the cat or any cat, a dog or a human being may not be able to ride a bicycle but they can break the law.

Well of course they can because we all have free will or we are just too lazy to think she cried merrily.

So if you ride a bicycle along the pavement especially when there are people about you are giving the impression that you do not have any thought for the good of others. In modern terminology you are a narcissist or in Christian terminology you are a sinner although it’s not a mortal sin unless you kill somebody deliberately and wilfully. Who knows who is guilty of mortal sin ?

Don’t ask me I’m only a writer

Oh dear Jack you are so scrupulous. I have never done it before but it was so inviting when I came around the corner I felt like a child. I thought how lovely it will be to ride along the pavement

It’s very sad Jack sald that people see being an adult as a deprivation of pleasure. There are adult pleasures of course that we can’t talk about those in front of the cat can we?

Why not, the little cat wondered to herself. I would like them to talk about is in front of me.

The elderly couple rolled into the sweet little  kitchen on their milk bottle like legs and their cruelly deformed feet and rolled onto the wooden bench behind the kitchen table. But close to the grand piano as well

What are we having for our tea?

Jack said, I found a teapot in the dining room so we can have tea in the pot instead of in mugs with tea bags I think you will enjoy that my dear

I definitely will. I love a nice teapot. And have you made a cake?

I’ve made a lot of cakes but they are potato cakes!

Well my mother used to make those in the 1950s or was it the 1960s ? We still had a coal fire with an oven at the side. Those were the days.

Jack put the potato cakes on the table along with some co-op best butter.

Then little Louisa climbed onto the table and licked the butter with her red tongue.

See I told you that you were leading the cat into sin and now she’s been licking this butter. I will have to throw it away m

A cat can do something wrong but is it a sin?

Are there cats in hell?

But she didn’t see me riding on the pavement, his beautiful  brave wife exclaimed with a subtle yet obvious hint of violence.

Unfortunately the cat has got second sight being half Irish and she definitely did see her mother riding the bicycle along the pavement breaking the law with every turn of the pedals

What the cat was thinking was this:

is doing something illegal automatically a sin and is something legal always good?

The second question is easier to answer because we know that in world war two many things were done in Germany that were legal under their leader Hitler but they were definitely not good to put it mildly

To be plain they were evil

But breaking the law by riding a bicycle along the pavement is not in the list of sins in most Catholic missals

I suppose in the time of the Apostles there were no pavements and there were no bicycles so you would have to look for a general principle.

Give unto Caesar what is Caesars and give to God what is God’s

After that Jack got some fresh butter from the fridge and he and his wife demolished the potato cakes along with   some  bacon and egg

And so would all of us

Who would feed the cat?

My cells are opening up like tiny flowers

To the yellow sun and   summer showers

And so I love the world with all my being

With all my senses hearing feeling, seeing.

When I was ill my self was tight and cramped.

As if I were in darkness with no lamp

Even though  the sky is dull today

Gratitude alone will make me pray.

Must our human world be full of fear?

If only we could hold a stranger dear.

For touch, above all else, delights the heart.

This is why we kiss when we must part

Photo by Katherine

When I cannot tell you how I feel
When I want  your presence  without speech
I talk about the weather like a  fool

Sometimes when I’m tired I feel unreal
Or life seems lost and  meaning  outward leaks
Then I  can not  tell you how I feel.

Some months have their winds to make misrule
Others  throttle  throats and freeze the cheeks
I talk about the weather , as its cool.

We must keep moving or our blood congeals
So sheep must  on moorland  frosty, bleak
I don’t want to  lie , for  life is real

When winter mocks our age I find it cruel
Yet you are old and for amusement look
I talk about  the sunshine like a  fool

Oh, happy   snowfalls keeping us from school
As on the ice we tumbled with loud shrieks
When I  cannor   tell you how I feel
The weather  stands for  what  I   have  concealed

https://aeon.co/essays/cheerfulness-cannot-be-compulsory-whatever-the-t-shirts-say

“There is a fundamental difference between practising the Greek virtues of patience, justice or courage, and practising the American virtue of cheerfulness, which borders on psychosis. Patience asks us to change our behaviour, but it neither asks us to feel differently nor to pretend to feel differently. Granted, Aristotle believed that practising patience over a length of time would naturally make us more patient, but pretence was never part of the deal. You can act patient while feeling impatient, and it’s no lie. But when you fake cheerfulness, you are telling someone else that you feel fine when you don’t. This encourages the most maddening American T-shirts and aprons that say: ‘Smile! Happiness looks gorgeous on you!’

Cheerfulness conceived as a virtue – à la Boy Scout Law – instead of a spontaneous feeling is a pretence. It’s not an action but it is an act. Whistling while you work might be worth defending, but forcing yourself to smile when you don’t feel like it amounts to lying to the people around you. ‘Fake it till you make it’ has brutal consequences when applied to the emotions. “

There was an old lady from Chester.

Who did not allow wounds to fester

When stung by a bee.

She charged it a fee.

So now all the insects detest her

This lady was said to be bright. 

So we used to meet up in the night 

She was no use to me 

For I could not see. 

So I gave her away for a light .

Although I had tried to be free 

She had a deep tie just to me 

I tried to back out 

I was right, have no doubt

But she tormented me with trained fleas

I suppose it is guilt that destroys

Without any sign or much noise.

We lose our own souls

We’re no longer whole

This makes me feel ultra annoyed .

Kindness is not always best

The world is designed as a test .

God will mark it at night

To our mind’s  great delight

When do we get a right rest?

Eternal the rest may not be.

I always long to be free

Eternity’s  short

That’s not what we’re taught

From lessons and lectures I flee 

When we get to the end of the road 

The fountain will have overflowed. The road will be wet.

Goodbye etiquette

Poor poetry is always a goad

Your false nails won’t come off

You have broken a finger nail

The doctor’s is shut

You self diagnosed with paranoia and seek a place of safety

The cat scratched your hand

The dog keeps barking

You are drunk but coherent

You have a  cold.

You need to talk to someone

You wonder if you might get a cold

Your hair roller has got stuck in your bushy hair.

You  have run out  of elastoplast or aspirins.

You feel bored.

You need a new nose

You have lost the TV remote

You like that tea they sell in robotic machines.

You are sad because one person did not “Like” your photo

Your toe nails are dirty and you lost the nail brush.

You   have no stamps and you need to post a letter [ hard to believe]

You want a pregnancy test. [ How long ago………?}

You have no condoms.

You wet your knickers

You have lost your nail file or comb.

Your cat is ill and the vet is shut

You like eying up nurses.. remember a  lot are now men,anyway… so ladies…No!

You had a row with your wife and are trying to frighten her by pretending to have chest pains.

You hate Xmas alone

Nobody loves you. [ can you prove it?]

You have finished the Fiendish Su Doku Book while suffering gut ache

You can’t stay in on Saturday night

It’s a cheap day out [ but not for the NHS]

Remember it’s for EMERGENCIES

It costs  on average £1,400 per person per visit

And now,Mrs Mary Tan, will you tell the Judge and Jury what you were doing at 6.45 pm?
I was doing the Times Super Fiendish Crossword Puzzle no 76
But why would that stop you answering the door?
Er,I had stomach ache
Do you find Su Doku a cure?
No,I only wish I did.I see how many puzzles I can solve while in the bathroom
What is the average
Three
What is the range?
From 1 to 5.I am afraid I don’t know the standard deviation
What is the most ever
Five.I am hoping they will make some harder ones
So you heard the bell ring.You were upstairs.Could nobody answer the door?
I suppose Emile might but the lock is too high
Who is Emile? Is he your Lover
No, he is my cat.
Can he speak English?
Well,I think so.Why don’t you come round and see him?
I have no time.
So you cleaned the floor and made the bed
Then I set to work on Dirac’s Equation
Does Dirac mind?
Why should he mind? He is dead.
Oh I hoped to see him.
You must go to a Seance then
So you were lost in thought when a magpie tapped on the window
Correct
What does it mean?
It wanted a mince pie.
But who had been knocking on the door
Another magpie
Are you sure?
No.It could have been a Crow
Well, that’s all the questions I have for this person.My Lord
Next witness please
Hello,I am Mrs Magpie
You are human!
I believe so

Case adjourned

Never finish a sentence before ending it
Never begin a sentence with a word
Never end one with but.
Never free associate if writing to the government
Never be over-cautious.
Never end a word with a letter.And vice versa
Never give your name to the papers
Never dream about yourself
Never pass water.Have a drink.
Never take a random sample of your dreams out of your head
Never cut your own hair while typing on it
Never believe anything you read.
Never eat breakfast before you go to bed
Never do su doku puzzles unless you are in the bathroom all night
Never say a cross word.Just smoulder.
Never sulk for more than 5 minutes
Never make preparations after you begin

https://www.oed.com/dictionary/darkling_adv

Darkling is not often used these days but if you’d like to see the historical development and he says just press this link

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43588/dover-beach

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/stephen-king-on-writing-bookshop-b2793162.html

Mary heard a very strange sound as she came down the polished stairs of her bijou home.It was a loud two part shriek. I wonder if that’s the new answering machine, she thought as she went to put the kettle on to make a pint of tea.She heard it again,but it was not continuous Well it’s not the carbon monoxide detector either,she told Emile who was eating a sardine.Then she remembered hearing it before. It’s the old phone handset with a flat battery,se murmured as she washed her hair in the kitchen sink with some Persil Silk and Wool detergent. Annie came to the door What’s that beep ?she cried.And why are you washing your hair here? See if you can spot the phone.I can’t find it,Mary told her.I wash my hair sometimes just to clear my brain Well,why not keep some shampoo here or that new wash and condition in one go I have found the phone.It was in the waste paper basket!But you can’t put it in the bin,can you? No I will have to pay £20 for a cab to the recycling centre,Mary said philosophically. I’d better not leave it “by accident” on a bench given the current climate of fear. Well if we remove the batteries it won’t shriek any more,Annie told her kindly. How is the new phone doing ? she rambled on unthinkingly OK.It has a special button so you can block someone after you have picked it up.There is some much fear now about WITHELD NUMBERS.At one time we only knew after we picked it up.If I use my phablet my sister hates it..Mary disclosed.She refused to have more than 2 numbers for me so it comes up as UNKNOWN What is a phablet? Annie enquired sardonically,her little soft eyes crinkling with laughter which showed off her turquoise eye shadow which is actually a pastel stick from her art box! It’s just a small tablet but you can make phone calls with it. I didn’t know you had one of those! Neither did Stan,Mary said with a touch of sadness.I only wish we could phone heaven from earth. Wow,said Annie.Maybe it would spoil heaven… How true, her friend responded.Let’s hope they have some attitude that they makes them have a different point of view from us. Now,I’ll dry my hair and you can tell me why you came. Oh,dear,said Annie.Let me drink some tea.I can’t remember except that your wisteria has climbed up the rowan tree. Was it shopping? Was it Dave?Let’s ring 999 and see what he has to say. We’re all gray here,no fuss We’ll all go play with puss,Emile,come back

When Mary came out of the chiropody clinic, she walked round the corner to the new cafe where she ate a piece of cake and had a cup of tea .The cafe was almost empty and the waitress seemed delighted to see her ;she sat gazing at the Tudor wall across the road. The cake was delicious, indeed it was sinful to a normal person and deadly to a diabetic.
After drinking her tea she went into the Polish shop to buy some of their wonderful bread. The only problem with their food was that all the labels were in Polish and Mary decided that she had enough to do without learning Polish
As she approached the till by the door, a young woman seemed to be having some trouble with her groceries. She looked in her purse, she looked at the assistant she seemed to be trying to remove some groceries but could not make up her mind which to keep and which to leave behind ; she took a credit card out of her bag but it was not accepted
Mary realised that this young woman could not actually afford to buy the food that she needed and Mary’s arthritis was very bad. Selfishly, she asked the young lady if she could not pay for her food.
No I can’t ,said the lady anxiously
And do you have some children at home Mary asked her ?

Yes the lady said
Mary turned to the shop assistant and said “I will pay for this lady’s food and for my loaf. then she turned to the woman and said to her
“You can give this money to the poor at Christmas” thinking to herself that it would not seem so rude to pay the bills and assume that the young woman would do nothing in return
Isabelle, as this Polish lady liked to call herself, was amazed by this old English lady with excessively short hair standing on end like the head the toothbrush

What ,you are paying for my food ?
Definitely said Mary thinking to herself that she had just spent 5 pounds in the cafe when she didn’t really need a piece of chocolate cake
Suddenly Isabelle came to Mary and asked her her name ;she hugged her closely and whispered I will pray for you as she kissed Mary’s cheek
Thank you so much, said Mary. She gave the shopkeeper a note then she took the bread and walked up the road past the shop selling baths and lavatories in amazing beautiful white china;there were lots of school boys standing in groups chatting and laughing
I’m glad you’re all having a good time, Mary said to them with a smile
I don’t think I’m going to tell Annie about this, she thought to herself ;she might think I’m stupid for paying somebody else’s bill but isn’t it nice to think that we can do these actions purely because we are suffering from arthritis and can’t stand in a queue
So it looks like illness does have certain benefits like making us more generous to other people
At the bus stop a crowd of wet and damp people were waiting and unfortunately it was quite dark as well
I wonder if I will be able to get on the bus, thought Mary. she stood there in her light teal coloured woolen winter coat from Lands End in the sale last year with a pink fleece hat meant to protect her from the rain and at the same time to completely ruin her hairstyle
On her face she was wearing a moisturiser which was also a sun screen and on her full lips she wore coral coloured lipstick from Reverend Makeup for ex Christians made with holy water blessed by the Bishop Bath and Wells. in the West of England as it ran down the road
Her mascara was said to be waterproof but eating the chocolate cake in the cafe had made her weep with joy so her mascara had run down her face making her look like a zebra in human form
Fortunately, Mary did not know about this and she stood at the bus stop or rather sat at the bus stop on a horrible plastic seat. Imagine how bl she looked…… rather peculiar but then Mary always has looeds peculiar even when she was a young woman with golden hair that ran down her back in ripples like waves breaking on the seashore except that they did not make any sound as they waved in the Breeze and had no deep melancholy roar,as Mattthew Arnold might have written
It is quite true that the sea of faith seems to have disappeared but maybe there is a pool of faith somewhere were some goldfish might be Baptised By the parish priest now that the number of people going to church had declined dramatically.Sexual misbehaviour and even rape had destroyed a lot of young people who had trusted the priests and so never were able to enjoy a normal sex life with a chosen partner
No doubt many people do not have much love and sexual pleasure and they may be too shy to approach anyone .Why is life so hard? Some people have luck and others have terror and hunger,even torture

The bus drove up the road in the dark with a neon Street light flashing in a horrible manner; she did not like that colour and wondered if anyone might want to change it to something like silvery gold especially at Christmas time
When Mary got home she rang her old school friend Margaret.
Margaret, I am so selfish I paid a woman’s bill so I wouldn’t have to stand behind her waiting to pay or to come out of the shop without any bread at all
That’s a funny way of looking at it said Margaret it was very nice that you suggested that she give the money to charity at Christ.mas because then it’s being passed along from one person to another to the benefit of everybody
You are so clever, Margaret. I wonder what Annie will think. I wonder what Emile will think also being a cat he is not very expert at dealing with money or shopping ;he thinks that we should go out and kill something that we found in somebody’s back gardens and then we can eat it raw and so we won’t have any washing up. If ever there was something other than snails and worms in Mary’s back garden maybe she would have taken the cat’s advice

What would I eat Mary thought.. a fox, a hedgehog, a lion, a dog ? I’m afraid I could only eat the leaves off the forsythia and maybe some holly berries since it’s Christmas I don’t think that will be easy to digest. not much protein in that. Maybe I’ll eat Emile and then we’ll see what he thinks!
I think I might be getting dementia she thought to herself.
I’d better go to McDonald’s and have a cheeseburger and a large portion of chips followed by a large tub of ice cream I’m sure that’s better than eating things in the garden.

I wonder if Annie would like to come to McDonald’s? it will be a change from the kind of food we normally eat like roast beef and Yorkshire puddings or lamb chops on a bed of onions mushrooms and tomato. Topside with green peas or Lancashire Hotpot yum yum I wonder if they sell steak kidney pudding anywhere in a restaurant?
When Mary hung up she was so tired she fell asleep on the sofa and when she woke up it was late; she had some Weetabix protein and went to bed where Emile was already lying trying to warm it up for her and to save her money from using the electric blanket too much
Emile is a very thoughtful cat ;perhaps he would like to go to McDonald’s as well in Mary’s handbag.
I shall ask him in the morning she thought and then she dreamt about the bottom of the ocean and all the beautiful fish that swim ; she saw Stan trying to explain social statistics to a mermaid.
What a terrifying sight. So that’s where he is, she cried not in heaven with Jesus .l I think Jesus would understand that some old men still love women even after they have died and any women around might be mermaids who have been living in the sea of faith for 2000 years and will be living there much longer we all hope
And so say all of us

• I saw you on the pavement
  with your old brown dog
  You were shabby,poor,ragged,
  Sat on your tartan rug.
  You had water for the dog,
  You hugged him and you sang,
  But the people walked on by,
  And no-one looked at you.
  No-one looked at you.
• But you still sang your song.
  And you sent me so much love
  It crossed from eye to eye.
  I felt it coming in.
• 
  I heard that you had died,
  Though you were only thirty three.
  Only thirty three.I wonder,where’s your dog?
• I felt our souls had touched,
  You gave to me so much
  As I wandered in my grief
  Through the roads and round the streets.
  In your glance, you touched my heart.
  I felt love swimming through,
  From you right into me
• .Will you come again?
  I see all these dim, grey men
  Who cut your benefits
  To give more wealth to few;
  So that the needle’s eye,
  which is waiting when we die,
  is forgotten, for they want
  protection for their wealth.
• I wish that beggar man
  would come back here again.
  I liked to hear his songs
  But I can’t recall the tunes;
  Maybe I’ll write songs myself,
  That’s the highest sort of wealth
  Our creativity
  Is a path to dignity.Come back every one!
  I wish you had not gone.
  come back in my dreams
  and give me some new themes.
  I’m singing like you sung.
  it’s this world that’s so wrong.
  come back beggar man,
  I knew you were the one.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/06/adhd-diagnosis-society-human-development?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

 

She gave him an impersonal smile. It was cheaper just to have one smile that she gave to everybody rather than having to individualize them. Spontaneity was not known to her at least consciously.

She gave him a dutiful kiss. He said he’d rather have the money next time.

Her eyes were shifty  and sharp, like blunted  vegetable knives mixed up in the drawer.

My brain is like a plastic colander when someone’s poured boiling water through it.

She looked after the children with dull emotion. That reminded me I need to polish the silver tonight.

Her smile had little energy. The message was plain.

Her eyes could speak but they had a very  small vocabulary.

The doctor took total responsibility like a zoo keeper would for a small  sick monkey.

The nurse didn’t know what a hospital corner was. Maybe they don’t have any in that hospital?

His handwriting was perfect in form yet had  no originality. That is a very difficult thing to achieve for a human being.

Her eyes were smiling but she bit her lips tastelessly. I asked her if she would like some HP sauce but she said it was not feminine enough.

I was full of chagrin when I saw the doctor photograph me naked. I said couldn’t you couldn’t you at least give me a hospital gown? Mysteriously they are all in the corridor he told me politely with no expression whatsoever in his voice except contempt.

She asked me why I had three colanders in the kitchen.So I asked her, should I keep them in the bedroom? They are no good as chamber pots. She said I just wondered why you had three. So I told her to think animal vegetable and mineral

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/dec/05/the-best-poetry-books-of-2025?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

“With regard to the sharpest and most melting sorrow, that which arises from the loss of those whom we have loved with tenderness, it may be observed, that friendship between mortals can be contracted on no other terms than that one must some time mourn for the other’s death: and this grief will always yield to the survivor one consolation proportionate to his affliction; for the pain, whatever it be, that he himself feels, his friend has escaped.” – Dr Samuel Johnson