Three poems - by John D Robinson

PUSHING AWAY THE HOURS

Countless years of drinking,
getting drunk and high and
I’ve enjoyed almost all of it
except the time I was
threatened with a razor
blade across my face in a
bus shelter following an
argument amongst the wino’s
over a fucking cigarette
paper, it was a scary time, it
happened so very quickly,
over within a few moments,
not really having time to
consider what the fuck was
happening:  but I’ve enjoyed
it mostly, like that time I
had money in my  pocket
and I bought food and wine
and took 2 or 3 bums back
to junky Annie and cooked
food and drank wine with
these brave, dirty and
useless souls, that dared go on:
pushing away the hours, the
years of hopelessness with
not a care or dream, but staying
with it, because there’s nothing
else.
 
 
FLIES TO HUMANS

I will, at a push and under
protest, kill a fly or a bed-
bug or cockroach: I will not
kill anything else no matter
how creepy, crawly, hairy
and ugly but completely
innocent: I’ll catch it and
remove it safely from the
house and let it go upon
it’s way and warn the
fucker not to return:
but if it was an uninvited
human stranger then
things may be a little
different: I prefer insects,
spiders and even flies to
most human beings, so
I’d probably be more
defensive and aggressive
with intent, besides, my
wife would probably deal
with the asshole.
 
 
 MY PARENTS WEREN’T MONSTERS

My parents weren’t monsters,
he was a son of an alcoholic
illiterate gypsy family and she
was a daughter of a simple
working-class family without
ambition except surviving
and gossip: mother was a
school chef and a silent and
talented artist: father was a
drunkard and a scoundrel
and a lovely fucking fool:
my parents weren’t monsters
but two young souls desperate
for something different
and daring, to push the walls
away, to create something
of their own through their
own kind of love for one
another and they didn’t
create monsters but shadows
of themselves unleashed
in a time of
brief happiness.

(John D Robinson is a published poet from the UK)