I have always wanted to be nocturnal,

To Live by the light of the moon.

There’s something about the stars – they’re eternal.

I pray the sun sets soon.

From Things You Find in a Poet's Beard by A.F. Harrold

i.

Great grey belly porker,

toothy yawning slug,

cow-nosed submarine,

giant in the mud,

                                     reads

                                jest

                                            like

                         First, months

of flash, thud, shudder,

then the wailing...

                            Months,

that's half a young cat's life

All night Tippi and I lie with our arms
wrapped around each other
like rope.
I bury my face in her neck
and she wakes every now and then
to kiss the top of my head

'I'm fed up looking like Father Christmas,'
Muttered Father Christmas one year.
'I need a new outfit. I must move with the times.
So, for a start, it's goodbye, reindeer.'

The Hairyboos were hairy, the Smoothyboos smooth.

But they lived side by side and were never rude.

I saw a bride splendid in white garments
I saw a woman with one hundred children 
The children plump and firm within her arms,
But some fell down or strangers took and ate them

I have been here once before – It was a long time ago, I don't remember when.
But as my father handed me the axe-head
Images exploded in my brain.

A wolf once chanced upon a dog

outside the wild wood.

Cried Wolf, ‘And how are you today?’

Barked Dog, ‘Well, life is good: