18 - Clear Waters
When there is no rain,
the river flows clear, but it
needs the rain to flow.
#TheRedRiver
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
#AprilPoetry
#Poetry
#Haiku
#HaikuSaturday
17 - The Edge
There is never pain
on this knife edge, provided
that you never move.
#TheRedRiver
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
#AprilPoetry
#Poetry
#Haiku
#HaikuFriday
16 - The Silence
Once the flood has passed,
silence bleeds into silence.
We are done with waiting for something.
Now we are waiting for nothing,
and it is happening all the time.
#TheRedRiver
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
#AprilPoetry
#Poetry
15 - The Pause
The cord is tightened.
The stone lifted.
The river dammed.
The silent pause
The cord is unwound
The stone set down,
the river flows.
Everything has changed.
Everything is the same.
#TheRedRiver
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
#AprilPoetry
#Poetry
14 - The Waiting Room
Where are you waiting?
In the waiting room.
Why are you waiting?
Because we hope for what is to come.
What are you waiting for?
Whatever comes.
Hoping it doesn't.
#TheRedRiver
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
#AprilPoetry
#Poetry
13 - Waiting
Time has become a vice.
And every second twists the screw a little further.
Time has become a rack,
where every minute stretches out the nerves.
The waiting is never over (we even wait to wait).
Until it is.
#TheRedRiver
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
#AprilPoetry
#Poetry
12 - Trust
These days we walk in strange and unaccustomed paths,
with alien plants and soporific scents.
We know the route.
We’ve seen the signposts,
and we hope that other people know the way.
#TheRedRiver
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
#AprilPoetry
#Poetry
11 - Sharing
You have become a glass being.
A transparent shape of greys and shadows.
I can see your outlines and your workings,
and the secrets you keep close,
but not what they mean.
You don’t wish to share.
You never wish to share.
#TheRedRiver
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
10 - The Way of Things
Sunlight.
Daylight.
Day.
And today the sun is almost welcome.
Trees grow straight.
Dogs run fast,
and we still have hope.
#TheRedRiver
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
#AprilPoetry
#Poetry
9 - This and That
In such a state of that pain,
it is clear that this pain cannot come too soon.
They will fight, and one will lose.
The other will withdraw,
If all goes well.
#TheRedRiver
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
#AprilPoetry
#Poetry
8 - Flowers
Flowers on the shelf.
They remind you that there is
a world and you have a place,
and the place is colour
and the form of beauty.
#TheRedRiver
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
#AprilPoetry
#Poetry
7 - Bright, Loud and Sharp
If the light is bright enough,
the darkness will not overcome it.
If the sound is loud enough
the silence will not smother it.
If the pain is sharp enough,
sleep will not wash it away.
#TheRedRiver
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
#AprilPoetry
#Poetry
6 - Bedside Manners
How would you like me to be?
What is the right way for today?
What is the best comfort for me to do?
What shall I say, today.
What is best for you
#TheRedRiver
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
#AprilPoetry
#Poetry
5 - The Vigil
I've had my share of pain,
and it runs through my head
in those hours beside your bed
but watching you I know how
it is nothing like the pain of now.
#TheRedRiver
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
#AprilPoetry
#Poetry
4 - The River
Pain is a river, always flowing,
sometimes hardly a trickle,
sometimes overwhelming,
but always flowing.
#TheRedRiver
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
#AprilPoetry
#Poetry
3 - The Monster
All night you've been fighting,
and it's a jealous monster, with green claws.
Morning sees it slink back to its lair.
Undefeated, waiting for the dark.
#TheRedRiver
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
#AprilPoetry
#Poetry
2
Success, they tell me, but to me,
success means lack of pain.
No more pain
and life to go on as before.
To them, success means
wave you out the door.
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
#AprilPoetry
#Poetry
1.
To start, the pain is sharp,
a broken edge of glass,
enough to carve bloody lines
across your forehead.
My only wish is that
whatever let you sleep still let you,
and that your tired eyes
did not meet mine.
#TheRedRiver
#NaPoWriMo
#GloPoWriMo
#NaGloPoWriMo
#AprilPoetry
#Poetry
Pleased to say I've been locked out of my #Twitter account.
Did I say something right?
#NaPoWriMo
#NaPoWriMo2025
#ShoppingTrolleys
#poetry
#poetrycommunity
(3)1. Garden Cloche
I was despised. Despised and rejected,
sunk in mud. Now I am resurrected.
I am of use again. Inverted. Undignified.
Wheels waving in the air, yet I
protect your veggies and your flowers.
Use is all I crave
#NaPoWriMo
#NaPoWriMo2025
#ShoppingTrolleys
#poetry
#poetrycommunity
30 Evolution
Who knows what strange, mutated beings
are evolving in this stream.
Changes beyond the wit of God or Gaia.
Unknown starting point.
Unpredictable result.
No-one knows how this one will turn out.
#NaPoWriMo
#NaPoWriMo2025
#ShoppingTrolleys
#poetry
#poetrycommunity
29 Mud
The river flicks its tongue
over wire skeletons, half interred.
Licks off a coat of chrome and flows on,
Unconcerned.
#NaPoWriMo
#NaPoWriMo2025
#ShoppingTrolleys
#poetry
#poetrycommunity
28 Racing
Let’s run down this hill together, you against me.
Let’s see whose wheels are swifter.
Let's see whose ride is smoother.
The wind will play its music on our wires,
and what’s at the bottom?
Who knows?
Who cares?
#NaPoWriMo
#NaPoWriMo2025
#ShoppingTrolleys
#poetry
#poetrycommunity
28 Escape
There comes a time
when the confines of the world are not enough.
A wildness overcomes me
and the wind surges beneath my wheels.
The rush. The whoop of joy,
and the wind turns to rocks and stone.
#NaPoWriMo
#ShoppingTrolleys
#poetry
27 The Scapegoat
Back at the end
of the furthest point
of the endless line
of waiting for usefulness
is the Discarded One.
The first to show a rust.
The first to wobble a wheel.
The sins of the herd are loaded into its basket.
This one is cursed.
#NaPoWriMo
#ShoppingTrolleys
#poetry
26 Trolley herders
You can see them miles away,
shooing columns of discards round the ‘mac.
Who can drive the biggest herd?
Who can round up all the strays?
This one has the most,
this one was the quickest round the track.
But this one gets points for agility.
#NaPoWriMo
#ShoppingTrolleys
#poetry
#poetrycommunity
25 Canopies
There was a time, and not so long ago,
when the vast expanse of glass above
shielded us from the rain but did not
filter out the sun.
Now it is pocked with bird shit
and the sun has stained its purity, but
it does still keep us dry.
#NaPoWriMo
#ShoppingTrolleys
#poetry
24 Wobbly Wheel
This was a feat of engineering.
Everything aligned.
Lines perfectly welded.
Chrome perfectly polished.
Handle perfectly clean and sterile.
But imperfection found a hole
through which to crawl.
One wheel slightly out of line.
That’s all it took.
#NaPoWriMo
#NaPoWriMo2025
#ShoppingTrolleys
#poetry
#poetrycommunity
#vss365
23 Birds
Birds are the enemy. We watch them
circle and threaten in the sky. We watch them
swoop and fasten on our rungs.
We are not made for perching and our shine
seems always to attract their splattiest dungs.
#NaPoWriMo
#ShoppingTrolleys
#poetry
22 Scan and go
We have made room
for the counting tool.
It is our nature to be useful
and we saw how some of you
struggle with the adding up
so we gave you a pocket
for your adding-up machine.
It wasn’t much to give,
but we still think it’s cheating.