Under cover of night

The fiddler in blue gave the slip

to a toad of African proportions.

Toad wanted the fiddle.

The big silver whale

walked out of the water

took over the bandstand

and the angel folded his heavy

wings. In the soft light of

loving consequences the dragonflies

sat quietly on shimmer and

sparkle. Brook burbled and wouldn’t

change its tune.

Marigold floated on blackbird’s

melody, holding on to spiderwebs

during intervals. When manta ray

flew silently overhead all notes

burst with an audible sigh.

The Collector

finds them in bars,

parks, buses, the underground

or coffee shops;

he frequents downtown

pole-dance joints, picks up

blondes, brunettes or curly blacks.

Long legs, ample behinds,

he’s not choosey. All have one

thing in common: they talk.

Too much.

Somewhere in Soho they stagger

down those stairs

on dizzying heels,

click-clacking their way

into his basement. Call him

affectionately ‘Nutter’,

make themselves comfortable.

He smiles, puts his finger

to his lips and readies

the little machine. Pushes

the button and records

ten minutes of their silent breathing.

Terror

How much time is left?

In the whispers and hissings

are hidden words.

Mum and Dad disappear

after they kiss me good night.

They don’t know that I’ll soon be taken.

Something strokes me with cold feathers –

I wish I could tell.

Another ordinary story

Spring, it seemed, had changed

its mind. Like a disenchanted lover.

Pink, white, purple and tender greens

encased in winter-hardened water

topped with powdered sugar.

Fulgent in that white winter sun.

One harsh spring morning you

turned. No last glistening glory,

no last display of what

could have been.

A German-born UK national, Rose Mary Boehm now lives with her second husband in Lima, Peru. When not writing poetry she wonders who to kill in her third novel, or goes off on a travel photo shoot. Her poetry collection TANGENTS has been published in the UK, and her latest poems have been/are about to being published in US poetry reviews.