The neighbours cat

The cat with two names

regards me intently

with his huge reflective orbs

He sees the invisible me

the one others don't see

I have become his shadow 

It's something that neither of us understand

Or want to

The sadness will try to settle in his bones

like the longest winter day

stretching on forever

His dark brown fur 

flecked with grey

comforts me with every stroke

We are alike

timid with claws

He doesn't belong to me

he is someone else's, 

though he thinks he is not

And so he'll leave someday

when he thinks I no longer need him

He'll stretch and look back once

And I'll never see him

Again. 

LH 2016 

On Prescription Only

For two days my stomach
Tumbled, over and over again,
So I stayed indoors, and watched
"The Walking Dead"
Reanimated, halfway between
Life and death,
My temples throbbed, and,
When the sleeplessness abated,
Fidgeting and nausea
Wormed its' way in.

You said I had cartoonish eyes,
Did you mean I looked
Two dimensional, like
A piece of art?
The Mona Lisa perhaps?
Without a doubt, there was a smile,
If you looked long enough,
At the right angle,
In the correct light,
Rising from the dead.

2012 © LH

The moon in my teacup.

Gazing up at me,
The moon, in my teacup,
Drowning in front of my eyes,
One tip and it becomes a crescent,
Then, a whole moon again,
Trembling as my lips hover above,
The great creator!
Left, trapped in a weathered hide,
Clinging to the sides,
Stale, pale, milky moon,
Now long forgotten
In my teacup.



2012 © LH

Walking Away

My feet roam the ribbon road,
As laden as my heart, of lead
Horses on the carousel, go around
And around inside my head
Mulish crows with malevolent eyes
Indifferent to my agitation,
Extend their wings, they kaw
And show me no consideration.

2012 © LH

Flashback In Traffic

I drove through a red light,
Like shrapnel slicing flesh
It happened so fast
I didn't notice until the driver
In the other car, the one in my path,
Swerved and mouthed,
Moron, or something,
I won't pretend I can lip read
I saw her pupils dilate, glassy,
Mouth, trembling, catching flies
In the desert, with her red cloak,
Leaving behind a trail,
As I sailed towards her,
In silence, dreamy,
Then, bam, bam
The gunfire,
Horns, blaring
Then she was just a memory
In my rear view mirror,
There is violence in Syria
I caught the end of the news
I was someplace else,
Trying to figure out how to tell you,
That I can't cope with
Reliving the suffering over
And over again,
Then all of a sudden
I almost didn't have to.

2012 © LH

Curfew

You beat me frantically,
And I was a mute for three days,
My screams woke latent birds,

Like black bats, scowling,
At my pitiful face.

I disturbed the sleep of earth worms,
And neighbours,
Bothering the mellow moon

I appeared as suddenly as
The freckles that bridged my nose
That summer.

Later, caked with my own recipe,
Of salt and slime.

As suddenly as my unripe breasts,
Beneath my Frankie says Relax
T-shirt

You just kept beating,
Three days of silence,
In the bath

With my colour changing toy
My buttocks,

Red, blue, purple
Brown, green, yellow,
I hated you

You cherished me, it terrified you,
Both of us terrified, of each other,
That boy! That boy!

We were just holding hands,
On Kirby's lane and listening,
To the crickets sing, Daddy. 

2012 © LH

The Monsters' Bowl

Ten pins on thin black strings,
Dangling corpses lacking limbs,
Their necks adorned with bloody rings

Infected bowls, three elfin holes,
Gouged eyes and vacant nose,
Roll like headless phantom souls

The waxen lanes, that entertain,
Howl and screech and squeal with pain,
As heads roll time and time again

Eyeballs, in darkened stalls,
Delight in echoed wailing walls,
As legless torso's maul and fall

A spare, a split, a gutterball,
A strike is what they're braying for
It's the moan of slaughter they adore.

 2012 © LH

Hide and Seek.

I don't dream of you anymore,
Where did you go to, are you hiding?
I wander the corridors,
With their white washed walls
Opening door after door,

Each room hollow, as a whales belly
The removal men in their white coats
Took every scrap of furniture,
With their rubber block,
And conducting jelly

Except for the bed!
Rattling metal, leather straps,
And the sweet smell of ammonia
Are you hiding under there?
Like when we played hide and seek.

Ready or not here I come,
Come out come out wherever you are.

2012 © LH

Anxiety Attacks.

I have throat cancer, I think,
I smoked some cigarettes,
Four maybe, in a week,
And I don't smoke.
That was weeks ago
I keep waking up,
In the middle of the night,
And I can't breathe,
Like the time you put your hands
Around my throat and squeezed,
Then you slapped my face, hard,
And I saw stars
I had never felt so alive before,
So close to the brink of death
I can feel it climbing into my brain,
Wrapping itself around,
Like a bittersweet nightshade,
It must have crept into my mouth
When I inhaled
It's arrow burned a path to my throat
Now it's suffocating me
With its tumorous tendrils
I'm paralysed
I need you to slap my face
So I can see stars,
So I can feel alive again,
Because right now it feels like
I'm dying.

2012 © LH

Birth of a Poet

Don't read my notebook I say,
I have nothing to hide..

But this is me, totally naked,
Spat out, raw, from a deep wound
Flailing, my lungs,
Taking their first breath,
A gulp, a high pitched scream,
And fat tears.
Little fists for hands
And screwed up face
Witnessing my birth,
My thoughts on paper,
In all this commotion,
Then words, delivered,
Like afterbirth.
Confessional poetry?
If I wanted to confess,
I'd visit a priest
Ten decades of the rosary
And I'll be saved!
No I bloody won't!
Confess to God? Where are you?
Where were you when I was on my knees,
In the darkness, pregnant with anguish,
Groping for my pen?

 2012 © LH

Arthritis

Why do you fail me?
Cadaverous claw,
Fourteen flaming phalanges,
A fire breathing Chimera,
Gnawing through bone
With your primitive saw. 

2012 © LH

The Sycamore in Winter

Curious Corvids skirt beneath the cinereous clouds
A tumultuous wave of curling and swirling
In the crepuscular light they inhabit your bough
Rooted to the spot, scrutinized, analyzed

Disrobed and shivering, you reach out to me
I find you ugly, however, it's alluring
The guise of your sway,
When the light caresses your languid limbs,
For a brief moment, you appear radiant.

writerscafe
2012 © LH

Death Chooses You.

You don't get to choose death
Death chooses you
Unaware of it's approach
It skulks around you
It prowls like a predator
Sneaking through
The long grass
Sniffing the air
Waiting to pounce
It will choose it's moment
When it's good and ready
You don't get to choose death
It will choose you.

When you unscrew the lid
From your bottle of pills
Through tear filled eyes
And pop them into your mouth
Feel the rough glaze
And the toxic taste
That you think is death
Your body welcomes it
Then your stomach heaves
And you ride the white stallion
Through the city streets
Carried in the arms
Of a knight in shining armour
Then lie in a heap
Surrounded by machines
That continuously beep
You realise
You don't get to choose death
Death chooses you.

When you take a sharp razor
To your lily white flesh
And cut deep into your pulse
You think you can make it stop
Time seems to pause
But the hands on the clock
Continue to tick
Your heavy eyelids close
And the last thing you see
Is the knight with his shield
Its the end of the game
You awake wrapped in gauze
The wounds have healed
But you live with the shame
You don't get to choose death
Death chooses you.

You tie a rope good and strong
Pull it tight, it won't break
Put your head in the noose
The chafe of the twine
Around your neck
Stick to the deadline
Then sudden clarity
You want to live
The rope has no give
The chair you balance on
Starts to wobble
And topple
Your arms flap in the air
This is what it feels like to fly
Your feet slip from the edge
And they don't touch the ground
The knights stallion is black
And you climb on the back
You don't get to choose Life
Death chose you.

WritersCafe
2011 © LH

At The Bottom Of Pandora's Box

The nightfall is perching
On the shoulders of the day
I sense no warmth,
Only a sadness
As I pry in benighted blae.

In the darkness there is a light
It casts a shadow on the wall
Pandora's box lies open
Curtsy for the curtain call.

My eyes pursue the light
In the darkest depths I grope
To find what I am searching for
A meager trace of hope.

2011 © LH

Harvest Moon

On the horizon
The harvest moon
Warms the starless
Frigid sky
And my essence.
Poised,
Serene and silent
Far from
My whimsical heart.

2011 © LH

The Hangman

Give me enough rope
And I'll hang myself
Don't lurk behind me in the shadows
Chained in your saintly shackles
With your Judgmental glare
At my nom de guerre
We're indistinguishable
Aside from one trait
I'll pursue my pleasure
Whilst you lie in wait
Just give me enough rope
And I'll hang myself.

2011 © LH

On Reflection

She can only see fat
Glaring back
As she stares at her reflection
In the mirror
She runs her hand
Over protruding bones
It doesn't sink in
Her sunken face
The battle with food
Will never be won
The battle in her mind
Has just begun
One more pound
Then one more
Til she disappears
Then no more
Hurt, no pain
Just a ghostly reminder
Of an existence
No one to blame
But herself.

2011 © LH

Sacrifice

Westerly wind, living thing
Zephyr breeze
Gossamer clouds, escaping rays
Autumn day
Pinched my cheeks, aflush with desire
Myriad red leaves
Phantom flyers
Dance about my feet
So indiscreet
The summer sacrifices.

2011 © LH

Life Sucks!

Life is slowly sucked out of us
or escapes
a balloon
deflates
no bounce
we wither up
hurt quietly
cry silently
nothingness
no mess

Not I
I bounce
I float
delight
soaring higher
Then....
BANG
I burst
a mess
I'm hurt
a bloody wreck
pieces everywhere

Life is slowly sucked out of us
or escapes...........

2011 © LH








           

The Darkness

As I keep to myself and the evenings close
The loneliness inside me grows
The darkness surrounds me like a hooded cloak
The fear inside me has awoke
Staring out, but nothing stares back
Though eyes all around in silent attack
I close my eyes and try to hide
Prepare myself as the voices chide
I put my hands up in pointless defence
As the voices around me become intense
A whisper, a sneer, they wound and scar
They draw closer from where they were
I taste saltwater on my lips
My tears have slipped through my fingertips
I hear a sound escape from within me
It's unfamiliar, yet it sets me free
A circle of light, a minature dawn
The shadows dissolve, my soul is reborn
Awake, I stare around my room
It's filled with light
And gone is doom.

2011 © LH