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First Flag

that first dragon was
a ribbon of blood;

that first grass was
a river of mud;

that first sky
was a streak of spit;

that first flag
was a wound just split;

the first men who hauled it
tore it out their gaping hearts;

the first wives who wore it
bore it from their just-raped parts;

the bastard child
of love and hate

that first flag
was hard as slate

a kite's sharp beak

a harp's wild shriek

a brittle tongue

a battle won -

like coal it burned
it had no choice

that flag was birthed
because no voice

was ours

those powers

we had, forgotten

that first flag
took what was rotten

and burned it
spurned it
spun it into this:

first flag
our flag

wrongs righted by its fist.

No Maybe Baby

My friend came to visit me with her new baby
And asked would I like one? I smiled and said maybe
But really the creatures are not to my liking
One end’s constant feeding and one’s constant wiping
One end is all scream and the other’s all splatter
Like tumours they grow, getting bigger and fatter
And louder and larger and soon they can talk
You have to talk back to them, then they can walk
You have to walk with them, then they can run
They run away from you, they take all the fun
Out of living the giving you get no thanks for
Then the grieving their leaving begets, what a bore
Are these children, these chilblains, these horrible kids
Who turn all your might-haves into never-dids
Who take all your time and your money as well
Who constantly whine, it was funny as hell
To see my friend croon and moon over the critter
She recently pooped out, the first of a litter
Of many, I thought, as her smiling daft face
Gurned googoo and gaga with all of the grace
Of a loony baboon, a baby-mad momma
Cartoon-y buffoon, and maybe tomorra
I’ll change my opinion but probably not
As I looked at my friend and her child all I got
Was a shivering sense of all she was missing
That quivering mass was all she was kissing
While I get the whole world to choose from and take
Boys, booze and bonbons are mine, that mistake
Is one better left to birds who feel a need
To fetter and cage themselves i.e. to breed
While I with my words will live happy, no baby
With unending turds will tie me down, no maybe
About it, without it I’m glad and I’m glowing
And instead of a child I give birth to this poem.

Everything At Once

Ive been very busy recently - maybe overly so. No time to write, gigs cancelled and even missed, almost sacked at work, suffering baby bouts of burnout... I think I may be at that thing called 'a crossroads'.

On the other hand, Im very happy to report that recent gigs with National Theatre Wales, at the Wychwood Festival and the new-but-lovely Trip Festival went well.

Next up: Nozstock Festival, Green Man Festival, Cardiff Comedy Festival, and Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Watch this space!!!

M x

Poem of the Month

My poem 'Beautiful Girl' is poem of the month on the lovely perf poetry website Write Out Loud. You can read it here:

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/features.php?year=2010&month=5&tag=Poem%20of%20the%20month

Slam!!!

I have been SO busy... Gigging all around, doing workshops in prisons and schools, trying to be on the telly (ITV Wales came to film me... this will hopefully be out soon!), organising events (including a SLAM to take place on May 31 - see www.jambones.webs.com for details) that I have been rather remiss in these missives. I am a misgiving miss who misses her mission, which is:

to write, rather than organise
to wrong, rather than right
to write, rather than left-overs
to left, rather than right

and so on.

So! Here is another blog post for you. Did you enjoy it????? Me too. x