It was not a jazz hands ending.
Can you put away the pride in the bottom drawer?
I was in a half-fold of not knowing how to be kind.
A beaten batter all ready for the smoking pan,
That would come out another fine mess of scrambled notes.
I dissected the truth by plucking splinters from an Angora pullover.
As scientists can tell you, this methodology is not always statistically successful.
If only I could speak straight. It’s not easy in this temperature.
The doors closed, now the gun's to my head… BANG! You hurt me.

Forty-two per cent of marriages end in divorce. A quarter of women experience domestic abuse in their lifetime — not just physical abuse but coercive, controlling behaviour — adding up to 1.3 million women a year. In England and Wales, an average of two women every week are killed by their current or former partner. Since 2010, budgets for refuges have been cut by £7 million in real terms.

Poetry on the Picket Line is a squad of like-minded poets putting themselves about to read their work on picket lines, in the spirit of solidarity. Invitations to rallies etc. welcome, contact facebook.com/pg/PicketLinePoets