"Less" - a new collection

Two poems from my new collection of poetry, "Less".

escape

when the money ran out
sometimes he would sell toys for cash
a Hornby Pacific loco — with steam! —
traded for half-a-dozen sausages
a tin of carrots
Cadbury’s Smash

  it was an odd exchange
  as if they had landed in a foreign world
  with a different currency
  where joy and innocence had been devalued
  their investments lasting no more than a week

    he was a refugee of sorts
    banished from his native shores
    forced to acquiesce to new rules
    imposed by those who should have known better

      and if there was a bunker
      in which he could settle
      undisturbed

        he did so
        locking the doors to his mind

          inventing new worlds to live in

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packing boxes for the removal van

is like finding memories on a shelf 
dusting them down for momentary reliving
before slipping them into a cardboard box 
to be wed to the dark by extra-strong tape

presumably to be exhumed later


in the space on the box marked contents 
with optimistic permanent-ink marker 
you write MY LIFE in capital letters

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