Mabh Savage
Words and the world passing by; how it sings to me; how I clamour back.
Superstitious Villanelle
One for sorrow, two for joy
Taunts the lone magpie
That bird in the hand, shy and coy.
When we shy away from ladders
Cover mirrors, dodge bird droppings, chanting,
“One for sorrow, two for joy.”
While stars can be wished upon
And white feathers heaven sent, or from
That bird in the hand, shy and coy.
And salt is thrown, left, not right
Demons scrabble to count the grains:
One for sorrow, two for joy.
And owls spell doom, gloomy omens
Flying into storm wrecked windows,
No bird in the hand, shy and coy.
So step on cracks, pick up pins and tacks
Umbrellas explode indoors, but shoes: off the table;
One for sorrow, two for joy
This bird in the hand: shy and coy.
NaPoWriMo Day Four: Grey Sky Mood
When the sky is grey
Like fluffy grease
From the bottom
Of a chef’s shoe
Like a smear of ash
From a dead campfire
Like pencil shading
Abruptly halted
By the snapping of lead.
When the sky is grey
And looms above my garden wall
I sigh,
And fall, and fall, and fall.
NaPoWriMo Day Three: Sacred Crossroads
Wandering, feet finding their own way
Over treacherous stones
Sucking mud puddles
Velvet grass, chomped short
By sheep.
The wood, the fields, the ditches
Are my pathways
To walk without interference
From my unruly mind.
These shoes have seen a lot
Fights, nights out, outings, things
Beyond understanding
Rituals and dreams
Schemes of higher beings
These shoes have stepped into circles
And out of this world.
Through incense smoke and stones
Real life cushions, mental thrones
Mind palaces and homely hovels
Head held high while conscience grovels
Most things are hard most days,
That’s why we pray
Make covens
Light candles
Walk between the oak and the birch
My sacred crossroad, calling.
NaPoWriMo Day 2: Fake News
We share and we share and we share
But we don’t care
Where the words came from
Which mouth spewed the rhetoric
That currently resonates
With our own bitterness
Which bilious belly
Heaved and hurled this ‘news’
Onto the world stage.
We snap and snarl and chomp and bite
Only caring that we are right
Regardless of
Fact checking
Snopes snooping
Hoax hopping
Sensationalist snot
Drip drip dripping
From noses stuck in
Everywhere.
When did we forget
How to be kindly critical?
Bang
Bang…
Slams the door
Cracks the window
Dints a smile
Burns a path in the grass
All the way
To the incinerator
Bang…
Shouts an engine
Pounds a horn
Stamps a pedal
Screams a tyre black track
Bang…
Ends a nightmare
Stops the moment
Snaps eyes open
Epiphany explodes, chilly knowledge
Noise and vision
It’s over.
Let’s play!
An outdoor, under cover play area so bored kids can unwind from shopping even though it’s throwing it down with rain? Well done, White Rose Centre. Good work.
I’m on Spotify!
My song, Seraphim, is available on Spotify from today!
Click this link to listen, and please feel free to let me know what you think in the comments.
If you enjoy my music or writing, please consider helping me create more! Become a patron at Patreon, or simply buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi.
I’m hoping to release more tracks through the year, so watch this space!
Have a great weekend.
Going in Pairs
Lads roll their eyes
When they see us pop
To the loo in pairs
Easy to be blasé
When you’ve never been groped
And had no one believe you
Never been pinned against a wall
Never been leered at
With no one to back you up
Never stalked in a dark corridor
Like some sort of prey,
Weak only because
Of foolish patriarchy
That somehow thinks
We would make these things up
Like it’s jolly to say
‘I was touched’
‘I was hurt’
‘I was raped’
Who says these things for fun?
Not all men! Comes the cry.
Of course, and likewise
Not all women lie.
So don’t begrudge us
The fragile safety net of
Going in pairs.
At the Seaside
We went to Hornsea this weekend. It’s where my fiancé’s parents live, so we go fairly often. It’s almost inevitable that we’ll end up on the beach. Even when the kids don’t demand it, I do! And the dog has two walks a day down there, getting rowdy and sandy.
This is a ‘creature house’. In order to understand its purpose, you’d need to have a better grasp of the seven-year-old’s mind than I! For the past few visits, he’s insisted on building one of these. First we have to source the right stones; a firm foundation. Then they have to be laid out quite precisely. Then, usually, one of the big people has to fetch a bucket of seawater to create a pool- so the creatures have water too.
He wandered away from his creature house for a short time, and was delighted to find it attracted some actual creatures! Gulls and a huge crow came to check out the new structure; a proud moment for our intrepid constructor and conservationist.
