January Small Stones # 30

The penultimate stone

Now what shall it be?

I thought about mademoiselle  pussy cat

but she’s evading me

I twice walked past the hedge today

or where it used to be

it’s now a deep and flooded ditch

that makes my chest go tight

my very first stone of January

was the seed of old mans beard

now blown and vanished in the night

for you I snapped daffodowndillies

and graceful silver birch trees

I wrote of my own red nose

beckoning wide blue estuaries

baked Camembert for tea

I’ve dropped you down in India

shown you a rainbow with two ends

and I’ve swept away bad spirits

to make you smile my friends

so now there’s just tomorrow

and then what shall I do

maybe stick around for February

casting nuggets for you!

January Small Stone # 24

Do you remember the TV ad where the whole office stops, opens a can of diet coke, and sits back to watch the window cleaner at work? If you remember, then you may have just had an involuntary shudder. Well today my colleague and I had such an event, only it was a ginger nut break rather than a DC break!

There was a problem with the light over my desk so Estates were notified and an electrician, complete with a new fluorescent tube and a tool duly arrived. Oh my! Tall, black silky hair and with a Latin look, he stood beside me surveying the light fitting and much as I wanted to sit tight I was in his way, so I stood back with Viv and watched. He stretched upwards, revealing a sliver of taut, olive tummy and I had to grab a biscuit to stop myself looking silly with my slack jaw. He may have said a few words but I didn’t hear him, I was too busy planning how to ‘accidently’ trash the light to get him back tomorrow.