preparing Sandie Craigie’s poems for publication
typing the words
ever so slowly
her Edinbury dialect
and spelling
coming uneasy
to wasted fingers
and west coast brain
_____
but in my head
I hear her voice
and see her clearly
rocking to the rhythm
of these potent lines
that make me weep
and laugh in turn
___
seven long years gone
and still my eyes
seep torrid tears
___
the fear
the horror
the love
___
no more than
memory now
___
the pain in my gut
a sharp reminder
of what is lost
paper hat man
when it begins to wear out
he will make a new one
a black and white
newsprint affair
all those stories on his head
both sad and bad
with the odd humorous
or human interest tale
snuck in to lighten the load
___
sometimes it’s a glossy
magazine page
colourful and terribly chic
like today’s edition
sporting fragments of models
stiletto heels, sleek hair
some elegant clothes
half a muscular torso
tucked in to numerous folds
___
but always the same design
a neat little pillbox of a hat
above the unshaven face of
the local roofer who laughs a lot
tells jokes and funny stories
and is just a wee bit crazy
from too much sun
up there on the rooftops
day after day after day
___
Krassie, the paper hat man
an eccentric and welcome
addition to our village life
***
my wee brother
Saturday night in The Village
Charles wanted to show us
his favourite bars
watch this, he said
stepping forward
swinging his kilt
along the avenue
all the young men
whistled and hollared
how we laughed
ever the show man
my wee brother
***
a response to slander
seen it all, done it all
storms come and go
I weather them all
water off a duck’s back
not exactly a piece of cake
but hey ho
I’m still standing
holding my corner
in my own inimitable way
there’s not much could happen
that would be worse than
what I’ve been through before
____
yet people never fail to amaze
and this recent
quite unexpected attack
is out there
I don’t mean leftfield
but way beyond the pale
a mind-blowing slurry
of malice and slander
lies, damn lies
curious contradictions
and implausible tales
a scurrilous conspiracy
deserving of instant disdain
____
I have the integrity to refrain from
gossip and spiteful tale-bearing
I think of what I know
yet have never revealed
about these individuals
then I hear their sorry narrative
conjured up from unimaginable
depths of vindictiveness
and I stay speechless
____
if I were to truly spill the beans
their already tarnished reputations
would crumble to dust
____
they are nothing to me
my time too precious to waste
***
sweet memories
today I watched a video of Santana
an early, live performance
of Black Magic Woman
fifty years from my first hearing
on a jukebox in a bar in Brooklyn
played for me by Frankie Santana
the African Puerto Rican with whom
I shared an intense, emotional union
____
half a century has gone by
yet I remember clearly
that first love, however brief
the night I asked him what he wanted
and he smiled and said, you
in an instant his wish was granted
beginning a ten month long involvement
featuring bars, much acid and weed
New York winter nights on freezing streets
a summer visit to a Karlsruhe army base
____
when we parted we both agreed
it had been an incredible trip
***
