Places

In that small cottage over there,

I first saw the light of day.

 *

Up that dark and cobbled street,

awful demons I did meet.

 *

In that schoolyard I met Alfred;

he could pee two inches higher.

 *

In that schoolroom I did learn

the wonders of the written word.

 *

In this ear did a schoolgirl whisper:

come closer, love, and let me kiss you.

 *

My sister gave me in that house there

a delicious slice of her homemade bread.

 *

In that village house I knelt beside

the bedside of a coffined child.

 *

In that air raid shelter I did hide

from enemy bombers in the night.

 *

In this street I once did see

a big red bus run near over me.

 *

From Glasgow city I sailed away,

great expectations filled my day.

 *

Down that road I walked on air,

softly whispering my love for her.

 *

In that ward a miracle I did see;

my first daughter born to me.

 *

So many places I have seen,

wandering, adventurous, lucky me.

 *

Dennis Crompton © 1995

(first published www.denniscrompton.wordpress.com 2013)

Sometimes...

So many times I have wondered how my mother felt about me. I never knew her; she died when I was one year old. Part of this poem covers those thoughts.

Sometimes I wonder at how I came to be…

From two separate entities preparing parts of me;

mother and father, loving ecstasy,

nine months later then entranced ME!

*

Sometimes I wonder what Mother’s thoughts had been,

the moment her eyes first gazed at precious me;

tired and aching reaching out to me,

held me, kissed me…then whispered, what?…to me?

*

Sometimes I wonder at the sights I came to see,

living earth, clouds and sky, ever changing scenes;

birds and beasts, fish in the sea…

the colours of nature all wondrous and free.

*

Sometimes I wonder at what life is all about;

winter and summer, floods and droughts;

the bitter, the sweet, certainty and doubt;

living and dying, a whimper, a shout.

*

Sometimes I wonder at the living mystery

of skin, blood and bone forming the visible part of me,

clothing the invisible you see as me;

sometimes I wonder…now, which is the real me?

*

Dennis Crompton © 1998

(first published www.denniscrompton.wordpress.com 2013)

Distant flavours

Michael, the quiet and reserved sixth-former at college was tolerated by the boys, being a worthy goal-keeper in their soccer team. Girls saw him differently, rating him tops in good looks and charm and dreaming of him as most likely to succeed as donor father to their as yet only dreamed of children. Despite their best efforts, none succeeded in gaining his attention and were dismissed with a fleeting smile. Visible but unattainable, Michael with the aura of a living Oscar, remained a delectable but distant figure. By the middle of term two sights were lowered, any male, ready, able and willing was seen as desirable. Hasty perhaps, as feminine intuition may or may not have let them down.

A movement, quivering for some time in Michael’s most secret place, began a gradual agitation to volcano status. Despite his best efforts, even with his mind in neutral, his body would take over, embarrassing him when in public, frequently and without warning, the location of its trigger to gain control eluded him.

However, at other times delightfully suggestive femininity surrounding him brought a higher impetus to play. Then, as if a door had opened in his mind, sonnets in homage to their loveliness would flow from his pen, sensuous and beautiful and waiting to be shared.

Until Kumiko arrived, softening the blue of his heaven and all other hues as well. Divided attention saw him replaced as goal-keeper but he’d gained a partner for the mid-term ball. Michael’s gift to her, discovered and purchased via the internet, came from Kumiko’s own country, Japan.

She took a moment to use it and there on the dance-floor they shared their first taste of tengokuno kutizuke, a lipstick rightly named ‘the kiss of heaven’.

And I’m assured that sharing such distant flavours is just divine.

 

Dennis Crompton © 2000

(first published www.denniscrompton.wordpress.com 2013)