The London Bus

I wrote this for a national poetry day competition run by my employer last year. I was never really happy with it, I think writing poetry to a set brief just doesn't work for me; but it was a useful exercise in that it forced me to write something, and I also made an effort to use a closed form.  Needless to say it didn't win.

I hopped aboard a London bus today,

such marvellous sites passed along our way.

Its gleaming roundrel red on asphalt black;

the city embraces the Routemaster’s track.

From the top deck I saw the world unfold,

whilst dreaming of my journeys yet untold.

Forever delayed

Ok, no posts for months, but I haven't given up honest! I've been reading Stephen Fry's excellent book 'The Ode Less Travelled' and it's made me realise that my musings would be better if I put a bit of effort into structure and form, so I've headed back to the drawing board with some of my ideas. It's bringing back memories of my feeble attempt at A-Level English Literature several decades ago. Back then I was young and naïve and rebelled against the technical analysis of literature which seemed inherently wrong to me as someone who loved to read. My bibliophilia is no less diminished, but my appreciation for critical analysis is now much more mature.

More to follow soon... 

Cancelled trains and braindead train commuters

I commute into London using the DfT's disastrous Southern Fail experiment, regularly experiencing cancellations, delays and overcrowding as the DfT attempts to cut the costs of train services by removing staff and trains. Two things in particular annoy me,  firstly, cancellations due to 'temporary shortage of train crew'. There is no temporary shortage of train crew, it's a permanent shortage, GTR don't employ enough staff, they haven't done for years, they've made no serious attempt to employ enough staff and it is entirely deliberate. Secondly, the nutters who try to squeeze their way down the standing room only train in search of an undiscovered vacant seat. They just need to get on, find somewhere to stand and suck it up, it's obvious when you get on a ram packed service that there aren't going to be magical rows of empty seats, so pushing through a packed train is just fucking annoying. 

Train Cancelled

'We apologise for the inconvenience.
This is due to,
temporary shortage of crew'
Yesterday, today.
Last week, last year.
Where did they temporaily go?
Mr Grayling should know!


Train Wanderer

The wanderer roams the train
Seeking the mythical empty seat
Squeezing past zombies
It's standing room only
Just cannot take it
Paid fortune for ticket
Don't make me stand!
They treat cattle better!
There's a bag on that seat!
How dare they do that!
I should reprimand them
But my stop's already here

My poem about CKD

I originally posted this on my Curse of Nephros blog and it got me thinking that it would be good to have a separate blog where I could start to publish some of the ideas from my notebooks that seldom see the light of day.

This poem about my CKD was written back in October as my submission to a competition run by the Disability Staff Network Group (DSNG) at work to publicise ‘International Day for Disabled Persons’ on December 3^rd. I don’t consider myself ‘disabled’ as such, although that may change when my CKD gets to end stage, but the objective was about highlighting the challenges people with medical conditions face.

Anyway here it is:  

Forgive my words if they are terse

It's not the end, it could be worse

They try their best, I'm sure it's true

But it's all my kidneys they can do!

They were never right from the start

Now I fear they'll break my heart

And when their time is finally come

I’ll beg a donor for another one

No point in asking ‘Why’?

Will only send my BP high

No more gout I hope and pray

It can only spoil my day

So a rather sorry little tale

I'll horde the days until they fail

Till then I mustn’t worry

For dialysis I’m in no hurry