Lynn White

Beat

He was a hermit living in a cave with his cats.

He had a long strong thread made of cat gut.

The vultures had eaten the meat.

He didn’t eat cat.

He sat all day each day

playing cat’s cradle and all that jazz

until one day they’d had enough.

So they ate him up and played rock and roll

clapping their wings in time

as good as any drummers could be.

First published in Coalition, Issue 1, September 2022

I Am A Child

I am a child of the revolution

created by the wake of

fascism and imperialism,

that sought to construct 

a more just society.

I am a child numbed by poverty, 

stultified by working class conformity,

of a mother who wanted better for me,

but also wanted to keep me the same.

I am a child of these contradictions

who became a rebel 

in the cultural revolution

of the rock and roll generation.

Who was liberated by student life,

by control of fertility,

by other places, 

by the music and art 

all parents hated.

I am still that child.

This is what made me.

This is what shaped me and

became part of my present, 

became part of my future.

Sometimes I have tried to escape it.

Sometimes I still do.

First published by Ealain, My Heritage, Issue 8, May 2015

Tomorrow Never Comes

The orcas decreed 

that the dolphin’s wedding

should be delayed by a day.

Delayed till tomorrow,

if tomorrow ever came.

This would give more time, they said,

to decorate the wedding gowns,

to weave more shells into the kelp,

the tiniest of muscle shells for him

in every shade of blue,

sweet pink cockle shells for her,

sometimes veering towards red

as if warning of danger.

The music was to be rock ‘n’ roll,

played by the Killers, of course

on improvised pianos.

The octopus was responsible for

the wedding breakfast.

He had enlisted the help of every friend

to enlarge and beautify his garden.

To transport rocks with anemones attached

and bring a multitude of coloured pebbles and shells

to enclose the fishy titbits collected specially for the feast.

But in spite of their reassurances,

still he worried about the guest list.

So many orcas and dolphins

who did not have a good reputation

so far as the octopuses were concerned.

But the garden was beautiful

and surely it was a fact

that tomorrow never came.

He had always believed it.

Now time would tell.

First published in Oddball Magazine, June 2017