The End of Ghost Story III

To be continued...

The audio for this years work can be heard here

Health permitting, Ghost Story IV shall follow next year.

Not even began to think about next year's yet so can't really reveal anything
but it will be all out war I can say now

The blog shall be here

Part XXX (Part A and B)

(The End..)

(A)

Ribbed in a broken

Red sunset

The man in black

Stood there

Lost in thought

For a good ten minutes
arriving after only
Brooks was left 

Before Brooks spoke

‘Well, I wasn’t expecting that;

He snorted

Reaching for a cig

‘Neither was I,

I thought he would

Have killed him for sure’

‘Instead he bought us more time’

The Man in Black

Pulled up his collar

‘And you believe that?’

'Mandrake arrived 15 minutes ago' ’

Brooks swore.

(B)

Carried across the wind

His coat blew up in the air

For five minutes

After he left the train

Covering the slight fog

Dangling on the platform

Like a blanket

Choking the life of somebody,

Before placing his sunglasses

Back on slowly

Leaving the two young inspectors

Shaking for a good ten minutes after,

Carrying on all the way to the gardens

Past people pushing their way

All the way up to the station

Like they were in a rush to leave

Where his friend eventually

Spotted him stood outside a coffee shop

Flicking through his mobile

With a strained frustration

‘Mandrake’ He said

to which Mandrake smiled wordlessly

his feeth flashing whitely in the sun

like they were fangs.

'When are those bastards due to arrive?'

'Tuesday night'

'Gives us time to prepare then'
looking at the poster on the side of the bus.



To be continued.. 

Part XXIX A and B

(Nearly there - two more pieces leading to the end with the last I am expecting of my guest poems this year, the lovely Siofra Martin from Ireland. Enjoy)

(A)

Lucas stood there motionless

For a few seconds

Afterwards

Catching his breath

In a bass led heartbeating panic

Coma white in a chain led frenzy

Without a clue

Where he was

And dust dragging off his paws,

Sniffing his air in a vain attempt

To get his baring

Away from the light

Burning on his back

And fur half torn

All over his ears

Not to mention talons

All over the way back

‘What the hell did you do?’

he heard the words

following him all the way

back to the tunnel

and into the arms

of his people

barely aware of

what had just happened

and even less

of the deaths

he had caused

through no fault of his own.

(B)

‘What the hell did you just do?’

Michelle said stunned

Her fingers shaking

In murmured echoes.

‘I gave him peace’

Andy said in a tone

He didn’t regnoise

Cast out with a purpose,

‘He had been poisoned,

I cast it out’

Michelle looked at him

White-faced

‘How the hell did you do that?’

‘I don’t know’

He collapsed.

***

I know you aren’t in front of me.

I know you aren’t in front of me.

No,

 Don’t protest,

 I can see you sitting there

Head slightly tilted,

Glazed-eyed stare

Occasional grunts telling me to go on,

But body language screaming,

Are you nearly done?!?

Am I just boring..?

No..

 Is there something wrong?

I’m starting to worry

There’s so much of you gone.

Where is your sparkle?

Your fire’s gone out

I miss your laughter

I hate your self-doubt

Your colours have faded

To all over grey,

You blend into back grounds

And have little to say

I’m not the only one who’s noticed a difference in you

How your smile’s now rarer than the rarest of jewels

How you’re slowly confirming what we all feared we knew

How you’re slowly retreating from those you love most

How little by little you’re becoming a ghost.

@ Siofra Martin

Part XXVIII A & B & Andrew Smith - Movement in the Dark III

(On the day of my birthday actually - here are two of my favouite pieces so far following directly on from the last piece with a third piece from my Brighton friend Andrew Paul Smith - Movement in the Dark III)

A

Coughing in the sunset
the sudden burst of light
fused the lights
for almost two minutes

throwing everybody
in the area
to the ground 
like they had been Rugby tackled

breaking windows

shortening engines of
passing buses and cars

freezing the village
for a good few seconds 

before vanishing 
like a magician's trick

and leaving two
what could be men
stood there in shock

while the world 
shivered around them. 

B

Standing nearly in the light

They were thrown backwards

Some of them sliced

Almost in half

By the exploision

Like molten ice melting,

Forging their hatred

Into steel

Before splitting

Some into dust,

Some into the river

Never to be seen again

And the one

That escaped

Into a taunt line

Disappearing into

The nearby tunnel

Crying in broken agony. 

****

Movement in the Dark III

I tried to move with slight and ease

Not wanting to disturb a thing

Every muscle wanted nothing more than to seize,

Grazes covered in slime starting to sting

I had no sense of time or direction in here

Just my heart beating its impending sound of doom

And as the scraping sounds emerged once more something was suddenly clear,

This nightmare was sure to conclude very, very soon.

It came with a speed far beyond that of man

My throat squeezed between elongated fingers and curved nails.

But my found resolve, I knew, would force me to fight back as best I can

My heavier weight lifting it up despite protesting squeaks and wails.

Desperation and anger found strength now unbound

As I flung this man-rodent against the tunnel wall

The crunch of bone and split of sinew a resonating sound

And then nothing, for what seemed an eternity, nothing at all.

I waited a long moment, resigned to swift resolution from the nest

But it seemed as if I was singled out by only one

And so I didn’t wait around to theorise this test

I had to act now, gather evidence and so for this to be done

The body was dead and broken, but easy enough to drag

so I pulled with all my reserve and might

As the bodies of my colleagues dimly came into view my legs starts to sag

And I thought ‘what would everyone make of this grisly sight?!’

At least I had the proof of slaughter

The beast with my friends' flesh between its maw

At least the police should most definitely give me quarter

Along with the statement of events I saw

As I started up the ladder, the light seemed so bright, almost painful like a burn

The sounds from above so loud against strangely pointed ears

And my teeth! Growing sharp and long, and the thirst...for what was this I seemed to yearn?

The thought of the public suddenly greater than all of my past fears

I found myself sniffing the air, tasting a scent, my now stretched nails curving around

Now I understood, from a clawing graze, this undiscovered race, one for one, in this sewer

My fate now forever bound.

Part XXVII (Part A and B)

(Two pieces today - Part A focuses on Andy moving slowly towards Lucas and a very short Part B talking about Hope)

Part A

stood there in shock
underneath a street light
Andy stepped a few inches forward
with the breeze roaring
in his ears,

spilling over Michelle's words
almost unhearable

inverted in a different dimmeson 

'It's okay, I'm not here
to hurt you'

redifing emotions 
rather than words

airy silence 

rather than loudness

light merging 
with the darkness

cleansing each other
almost by magic. 




(B)

Surrounderd in chaos
Ghana looked at Brooks

'What's he doing?'
Brooks said
his words sounding almost
like a sky burial

'Hope;
she answered simply

'Hope'

Part XXVI

(Part 26 focuses again on Andy coming to a relisation)


'Can't you see' Andy carried on

his own fear caked

stretching across the distance
until Lucas froze

'Somebody's poisoned him
tainted him'

replacing terror
with pearls

exploding in imaginary
bombs

'He's murdered literally
dozens of your people'
Ghana said
rolling backwards
into the distance

swolled in crevics

staying separate in the distance.

'But it's not him'
Andy stepped towards him
'It's not him'

with Michelle's screams
following him further.

Chapter XXV

(Following straight on, it is all a question of breeding, Ghana explains)

XXV

‘He’s not bred for that’

Ghana said

Cracking the tension

Up to ten

Spitting words

Through inrrevisble

Laced sadness

‘His kind are not murders’

Subsumed in knowledge

‘then what the fuck has happened’

Andy answered.

‘he’s been poisoned’