Castle

The castle does not keep me safe

Bakewell tarts and bandages

Piled high up on a plate

Ticking clouds

The hands of time

All racing in our head

Get out get 

Whoever you are

Am I the parasite or host

I thought this was meant to be funny she says

I roll over in the red bed

Eat some crumbs

It’s all funny Alice

Funny as fuck 

You’re my little angel without wings

Well, I am bored of you

And there is certainly no need to be quite so uncivil 

You spend all your day wishing me away

Then stick me down in words

Dangle me like a paper ladder

As if I can rescue you

I am only almost eight you know

I can never measure up

To what you need

To what you want

To what you know

I try to smile a thank you 

As I have tried a hundred times before

But the powder

Spreads my mouth 

More like a grimace than love

I will keep you

Though I cannot keep you safe

These pages are too small

For my confusions

And your contusions

She giggles

Let’s redeem the numbers

There is no problem that cannot be solved

Hatter taught me that

He is the patron saint of riddles

What is your riddle

I wake up to fall asleep

She considers

Looks at the state of things

The bed

My head

The castle keep

Perhaps there is no redemption after all

It is hard to add humility to that truth 

I feel dreadfully puzzled Alice

I know

She says

And licks the cherry off the tart

As I fall fast asleep.

Power Cut

There is a dolly dressed all in blue

Stuck to the lamp post

The walls have ears

The stairs have toes

We whisper through the alley

Cold

Depraved

Powerful

They say

Only we know

Yesterday's Bakewell tart is stuck to the fibres of the red bed

When the fibres of the world are bound 

There is no power 

Quiet

or 

Loud

Hold on a minute

She giggles

Mummy’s getting white trashed

I suppose you have to see the funny

Break glass for key

Beyond the castle

Shredding protecting recycling

Protecting shredding recycling

No simple answer

No simple question

The walls have ears

The stairs have toes

No one seems to know

The fibres of time have become distorted

I pull the gold from my hair

Bananas and bread in our head

The stars fall on our hats

I could mop them up

Thirteen books on a shelf

Words that will never be read 

Funny

In a cold depraved and powerful way.

Still

I wished I could have seen who was talking. If you have something to fear, rather than something that could be anything, it is easier  - Neil Gaiman - The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The morning is bright

She lies across me

To keep me still

She knows how hard it is to quiet my mind 

No words

No spells

Just something better chiming in the far off miles

We do not really like the spiders or the flies

They scorch us badly

Worse than the powder and the dust

That becomes a pattern

Sunk into our skin

A sign of what has happened

A sign of what has been

The spiders and flies

Are wily 

Like him

They devour our spirit 

Quicker than the sugar melting on our lips

My eyes flicker 

I think maybe I laugh

She sits up

Like a cat licking her paws

Connected

Not attached

no wonder you snore for your head’s on the floor

and you’ve needles and pins from your soul to your shins

Sole Alice

That was the word he used

But she is right

Soul is far better

What shall we do today she claps

The same as any other 

You know

This and that

Something trite

And nothing right

A walk across the land

A photograph of sand

Falling through the egg timer

Aimless

Wondering

Wandering

Forgotten

Well quick sticks

And mend your bricks

We have a misadventure to pursue

I am so tired Alice I think

But she is off and away

Lost in my thoughts

As if they were her own.

Apologies

Thank you all for your kind and encouraging comments...I am sorry I haven't paid any visits in return...hopefully soon...thank you Jae

Favour

We take our powder unrefined

Like our soul

Empty and yellowed

Sugary little stones to step on

Prolonged use can make you dependant 

She caws

Like the bile in the back of my throat

Shut up

Shut up

You are nothing but a habit forming 

Like hearing subliminals at every turn

We are sniffing powder like it's going out of fashion

Milky keeps the medicine down

Our two pm chaser

In front of Father Brown 

Chasing rabbit like he's going down

She claps her hands

Living the dream

Empty packets and pie crusts swim on the floor

Let the spiders crawl

I can mix up a potion

Make my own label

Fuck you all

Well, that’s not very amicable

She straightens her lace

Neither is the world

This is not a dream

It is tar black terror

Do you not see

I only sleep when the light is on

And the papers are in my hand

Well, I was only saying

A girl must try her best

The man sucked a bronze key

Waiting for his magic

We have nothing to wait for

No magic

No key

No frivolous turn of favour

We are going down

Our powder unrefined 

Chasing a habit a rabbit 

I try to trip him up

But it does not work like that

This habit will never end

Fall out of favour or fashion.

Wave

We delve into twelve

There is lemon frosting on my toes 

Delicious she says

Licking it up

Like medicine

Mixed in dirt

And powder

A crystal snow trail

I poured the unheard message down my back

It was warm

Like a kiss 

But better

As clear as the moon

As hot as the sun

When the world ends

Which it will

She says

With great authority

Who am I to question

She has seen these winters

Many times before

I lie moaning

She larks about in sugar and candy

Not a care in the world

Except me

I think I am going overboard

I say to no one 

As I grab the edge of the sink

Maybe I like the sink and fall of it

This misadventure I breathe

But nobody hears

I am too far past my life   

And not waving but drowning.

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Thank you to Elizabeth at https://soulsmusic.wordpress.com/…/…/17/thinking-of-lucille/ for this Sunday challenge

Not Waving but Drowning

BY STEVIE SMITH

Nobody heard him, the dead man,   

But still he lay moaning:

I was much further out than you thought   

And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking

And now he’s dead

It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,   

They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always   

(Still the dead one lay moaning)   

I was much too far out all my life

And not waving but drowning.

Lye

Please ask for assistance

Help is available 

The nest falls

Splat

Like strawberry jam

Crumbing dreams 

And custard creams

All wrapped up in powder red blankets

Great for swinging she says

I lie lye lie

In bed

I could pour the message down my back

I think

Red works quicker

And we are so hungry

Scavenging for something full

Invariably we are empty

Like paper torn from boxes

So where is my present

She sets her lips

Pertinent

Pertinent 

Red works quicker

I think

In bed

In my modest state of confusion

I genuinely forget when I was born

Or when she came

He was so golden and pale

Beyond me

Beyond my dreams

So where is my cake asks Alice

Not that she needs food

And birthdays are redundant because she never gets old

She needs me 

Absorption

Distraction

Devotion

I lie lye lie 

In bed

There is nothing better I suppose.

Captured

Drips from the roof are plopping into the back door

The view above the sink is excessively drear 

Beyond the dank garden are the ruined walls 

The ploughed fields stretch to the leaden sky

I tell myself that rain is good

That at any moment spring will smile on us

I try to see leaves on the trees 

Filled with sunlight

The more green and gold

The more drained of all colour 

The twilight seems

It is comforting to look away from the window

Towards the kitchen fire

I am no beauty

I remark to Rose 

That our situation is romantic

Two girls in this strange and lonely house 

Our home is an unreasonable place to live 

Yet I love it

I can see more time ahead of me than I do now

I wish I knew a way to make words flow out of father

He brandished the cake knife so menacingly 

Was sent to prison for three months.

I wrote this for Dverse edited from I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith - but missed the deadline...but a surge became a smile for poetry pantry :)

Convert

The world drops me

Like a treacle filled balloon

I no longer capitulate

We fall 

Any way

Any where

Any how

She waits

At the end of the bed

Swinging her legs and singing

Until the powder wears off

The trail through my veins is inky

A single list of words

A pattern which renders me useless

Let’s stay underground she beckons

We belong there

This is not home

Home is where the heart is

And yours is on a playing card

Look Rabbit’s watch says time for tea

Hatter has a plate of stars

And a sea of peppermint moons

Can you smell the sugar and julep

It really is intoxicating

Just how you like

Just what you want

You know you will never be free

Powder ashes dirt

And me

She claps loud 

With a sense of condemnation

They threw the world at me

They threw the book at me

That smell comes in the dream

Through my synapses

Like a sewage channel

Beyond boredom 

Beyond ennui

we don’t want to be

we don’t want to be

Funny 

Even nothing generates energy

Electricity never dies

Only converts

Like water into wine

She waits

At the end of the bed

Swinging her legs and singing

Until the powder wears off

Until I wear out

We know I never will.

Look

We eat glue

So the sorrow sticks inside

Electric and steel buzzing in our ears

Reality

Too loud

Too vast

Too empty

We want nothing of its savagery

We would like a plate full of stars and moons 

So much sugar

We overdose on sweet

Not sour

Tasting is believing

Not that there is much left to believe

Stuck stuck sticky

The taste is on the pillow

Some place deeper than sleep

A passion we cannot claim

Though it pins us down in brick

Ghosts

Fallen 

Dirty

Gone

We turn over the earth

From inside

Looking for ourselves

Looking for god

We find a mess of stone 

And broken flowers

Hopeless

Thankless

Futile

Seven secret wishes swirling down the sink

What will be will be

Who we are we are

Can we fuck it up big she whispers

Go ahead

I whisper back.

Reserve

We walk to the counter

Push the button for attention

Any new years reservations

He asks

Just to keep going I guess

I fumble for change

The fancy dress itches inside

Like a lost belief

He talks

We panic

Half wanting to stay

Half wanting to turn 

Revolve the route

Review the route

Scatter down shelter

Our little world spins out of control

Like a very fast cake on a plate

She giggles and claps in my ear

It takes a lot of dedication

To dampen down the shiny

Swallow the stars

Plant the moon

Stop ourselves from growing

Well that can never be right

She harrumphs 

We grow whether you want to or not

Every word an inch

Every thought a mile

Some behind

Some in front

A race to run

Not win

She is right

Of course

Being is beyond our design

We are at the counter

Any new years resolutions 

He asks

Too many to sing

I whisper inside.