Poetry Portfolio Part 2

This part contains Losing It, May the First and all that, My Imaginary Friend.

Losing It

My name is Joy. Mum said
she called me that because I smiled
when I was born. She said it was
probably just gas but she was the happiest
mum on the planet. She said more
people should name their children
after a good memory.

There's a girl in my class called Serena.
When she gets mad she throws her hands up,
yells 'God, give me serenity!'
I asked her why
she said that's what her mum says
just before she loses it.
I asked her what 'serenity' meant
She said it was everything she wanted to be.

We're studying the state of Virginia at school
I told my teacher about my Aunt Virginia
Dad said she's was 'a royal
pain in the ass'
I wonder if, in Virginia, she'd be royalty?
I'll google it at home.

I went to type in 'virginia' but accidentally typed 'virginid'
and google asked 'do you mean virginity?'
Maybe I did?
So I read a bit. There were a lot of big
words I hadn't seen before
so I decided to ask mum - she'd know.

"Is Aunt Virginia named after a good memory too, mum?"
Mum was peeling potatoes.
"Mum, what's a virginity? Is it like serenity?"
She dropped the potato she was peeling
"Mum, what happens if you lose your virginity?
Is that what Serena means by 'lose it'?"
Mum's cheeks started going red and
she didn't say anything straight away
My little brother watching TV overheard,
he piped up,
"You go and find it again, silly!"


First May Then All That (Terror Rising)

The Patriot Puppet mesmerizes
the crowd
cries and raises
their star-strangled banner
Freedom sneaks
and Bravery spangles

Taleban flesh pounded
Heady tale, smells like
Pentagonal 9/11 cordite
Events conspired to plan
Benefiting whose insides?

The Prating Puppet proclaims:
"Truth - take it and eat!
It may turn the stomach sour
but it will taste honey-sweet"

Spin into control
Of - by - for the people
but which people?
Those more equal?
An eye for a lie

The Prayer Puppet seeds the march
God bless America
in justice, for taking life
for killing another’s wife

Defeated – but for how long?
Enigmatic enemy
Champion of hide and seek
Found holed up in cave
of luxury

The Print Puppet impresses
leading story, shows
late success
Pressed public weep
with just joy

Magnetic demagogues*
point 'True' North;
but navigating by that compass
leads in fool circles

All the world's a stage
And all the people in it
Merely being played.




*dem·a·gogue/ˈdeməˌgäg/Noun
1. A political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument.


My Imaginary Friend

When we met you hid
gold rocks for
me, I was Dorothy following
your lion-heart
to the evergreen city
of first times and like/love.

I dreamt about you last
night, as if
the decade between didn't
exist - we were again sixteen.
Even in my dream
I was nervous about saying
the wrong/right thing.

I was sold out on you
I thought, in love. You
an island's length away,
mostly MSN's 2D fantasy - yet real.
Your ghost is a biased truth.

The fact to my fiction is:

Awake, you teeter the corners of reason
Asleep, you invade my dreams
True/False - you loved and
left me well.
Now, I'm captive to an idea/l.

I want to see you,
shatter the perfect picture,
I crave that the fantasies end,
Come, return reveries into reality;
Whatever that may/may not be.