Ralph Hawkins
ANARCHY
I dug the garden soil
creatures without names
tattooed all over
crossed the coppice gate to safety
leafy fires signal
hip replacement
chapped lips on winter’s sharp breeze
are robin red
her fat arse won’t sit in that seat he said
and drank water at the fountain
the youth smiling in handcuffs
not for press release
planned to kill us all
the perfect pattern of a poem
drips from the tap
and I put the bulbs in
water well
unrelated afterthought - blow up Ikea
related afterthought - do they stock garden furniture?
TIME THE GREAT DESTROYER
How quickly a month goes
The missing pieces, the bad news, the post
But the flowers (June/July) the names of which I never know
are pleasing
There are doctors here and lawyers, nurses, teachers fleeing
The French film is pleasing also
Not Denzal killing all with aplomb or a gun (in fact many guns)
I think of the second of the Four Precepts
and Titian and cheese on toast, most pleasing
MARTIN BECK
a light duster of snow
There are only three of these in the world said the Khan
facts about Nature?
the wind whips up a lettuce
born in 1967
a crash in Iceland on the Richter scale
she is dust and ash now
he went on to marry a model (person)
there’s that bridge (tv) which joins two programs
they keep saying “kiss” on the phone
THE LONG WALK HOME
Walking seems to help
every day in the morning
the ten miles from Arcueil to Paris
umbrella tucked under arm
coming back well pissed in the small hours
robbers, mermaids, lobsters
carrying a toffee hammer in my pocket just in case
Hardy’s three miles stretch
to and from school in all weathers
two men in chairs on either side of the road
the bandit ridden stretch
between Jaywick and Clacton
stabbed on the Apocalypse
quite pleasantly fucked in the garden
the end of the world a casade of 2p coins
April-December 2015
Copyright © Ralph Hawkins 2016
Ralph Hawkins' most recent book is It Looks Like an Island But Sails Away (Shearsman 2015). There are two further collections from Shearsman, The Moon The Chief Hairdresser (highlights) (2004) and Gone To Marzipan (2009). He can be found reading at the Brighton Poetry Festival 2012 on YouTube and also archiveofthenow. He has interviewed Ted Berrigan (Talking in Tranquility). He has written articles and reviews about poets, Douglas Oliver, Alice Notley, Allen Fisher, Simon Pettet and others which can be found on intercapillaryspace. His work appeared in Molly Bloom 7.