The First Marriage

a heart on a rope a swinging red brick

a clapper wick of love snug in it's soft bell,

my Angelus hands pulling the hours out

our prayers unpeeled by the toll of breath,

we lay threaded bare on the marriage bed

the cuddle of blood drizzled on the altered cloth.

John G.Hall(C)2004

The Glad Cadaver

his box of tricks put away

he sulked beneath us

with tight lipped defiance

he showed the family up,

after all they had let him down

on frayed ropes in rough hands

undertakers fingers blessed by

nicotine & long shot betting slips,

his fox gone to ground he waited

for the family pack to wander off

towards the ' Horse and Hounds'

then slowly he began to burrow,

down into sticky cemetery clay

gravity pulling him from his bones

until each particle at last escaped

the nagging mouths of relationship.

John G.Hall(C)2005