Pantomime

Playing up for cuddles and milk and change
A ringing class bell, then Bulldogs at break
After-school rehearsals on a rickety stage
All the kicks and kisses of young-love games.

Fake it ’til you make it, and dress the part
Pretend you’re unafraid when sharing your heart
Peek-a-boo your baby, make an armpit fart
Rerun those salad days through a fast, flash car

Snakes and ladders across a marathon course
Some stack-up chips, and some others lose scores
Knock Down Ginger, retirement home corridors
And when He comes knocking, pull out your chessboard


- c. h., 24th July 2018

Posset Haiku I

Twin canals flowing
Forwards and backwards at once
Posset tape duet

- c.h., 9th September 2018

Poster Fantasy

My poster of Sydney Sweeney was peeling off the bedroom wall
And rather than letting it collapse to the floor

I skewered the last Amur Leopard
And ordered the missiles to start the final World War

So now I am become death, destroyer of worlds
An Amur Leopard killer; the Amur Leopard extinctor

And the poster of Sydney Sweeney still fell to the floor
Leaving only the sound of a ticking clock, and my violent record

    - c. h., 16th July 2022

Pre-Clear Eyes

We see simulations
Obsess on basic phenomena

Holograms screaming
“This is a fucking pipe!”
 
Virtual hands kneading waves
For a shadow as evidence of an ocean


    - c.h., 20th September 2020