Small Revenge

I wish you tens of rainy days
and a frisbee (new). Of course you'd go
into the weather - no-one else
would want to play. And if I could
I'd send a scrap of bright red cloth
into the washer with your finest
funeral shirts. You'd then wear black,
the tutting fierce from bearded aunts.

Perhaps no taxis to be found
on Friday nights, with parties pending;
you'll arrive, dishevelled, late,
and bump into your ideal girl
and only later find out she's
still saving, waiting for the op.
I'd shake your beercans; engineer
your fried eggs cold, your ice-pops warm.

I do not wish you any pain,
or injury, or major grief - 
just life, with a thousand things
that don't quite ever go as planned;
though I suspect you're more than skilled
at doing most of this yourself.

© 2005 Miles J. Bell

His wonders to perform

When it was proved that
space isn't entirely infinite
God found himself
with a problem.
Not enough ether
to go around, for different
afterlives, etc. Too many
creatures dying these days.

So in a genius
energy efficiency drive
He decreed that
heavens and hells
be combined.

Good dogs found
toothless, clawless cats,
half-blind with limps;
He grounded kestrels and 
gave rodents flick-knives.
Former boy-band members
had a strapped-down audience
of cellists and college bursars.

And He looked at his work,
poured another beer, 
and found them both
exceptionally good.

© 2005 Miles J. Bell

She Watches Him Eat

like it's going out of fashion.
But passionless, filling a hole
where a man should be. She wonders
what little changes she could have made
to make things better then or now
or at least different somehow.

He wonders why she's always staring
at him, wishing she would just sit down.
When she stands he can see all of her.
The photographs of when she was
younger will always be prettier.
She only smiles for visitors -

if only he could go out and come
back in again. She should love him,
(even with grease around his mouth
and crumbs on his chin). Now she's
suspicious when he wears aftershave
(he only uses it on weekdays, office days).

© 2005 Miles J. Bell

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