Paul Tristam - Issue 36

Paul Tristram is a Welsh writer who has poems, short stories and flash fiction in many publications around the world. He yearns to tattoo porcelain bridesmaids instead of digging empty graves for innocence at midnight; this too may pass, yet. His novel “Crazy Like Emotion”, collection of shorter fiction “Kicking Back Drunk ‘Round The Candletree Graves”, full-length poetry collections “The Dark Side Of British Poetry”, "It Is Big And It Is Clever", “South Wales Outlaw”, “Uncivil Disobedience Is My Forte” and "The Gutter Symposium", are all available by Close To The Bone Publishing.

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Uncomfortable Pillion

… Disenfranchised

and Desensitised

… you ASKED

for THIS…

‘Obliqueness’

(Stratagem)…

we Burn in Box

-ed In… Corners.

“Beg To Differ”

keeps us at Odds

… Compassion

baited Cages…

I am Tired

of Explaining

the word… “NO!”

We all ‘Begin’

again in a

(Feeble) attempt

to Level the Leg

… differences…

Battle-Worn

by our previous

‘Experiences’…

until only wOnKy

‘Stumps’… Remain…

Some Kind Of Chance At Life

I simply ‘Shoot My Shot’

… and let the chips

land where they may.

I’m not afraid

of the word ‘No’…

I bounce right off it

and keep on a-moving.

My ‘Swagger’

ain’t just from the hip

… it’s from the SOUL.

Never indecisive…

and I only claim

‘Control’ over myself.

I’ve often heard it said

that many people

Deathbed regret ‘Fear’

holding them back

and ‘Nervousness’

self-sabotaging Chances.

Luckily for me…

I’ll never know

what that kind of ‘Loss’

feels like to Chain-Carry.

Each Day’s An Auction

Firstly, I ‘Listened’ intently

to each word

of your Introduction

… until,

I caught the accent

of the Rune ‘Gebo’

weaving itself

in amongst

the syllables…

then, and only then

… did I accept

your outstretched hand.

I had tasted ‘Change’

within the falling rain

this morning… and,

waited for a Sign

… ‘Twitchy’ was saddled

-up and raring to go,

as I dismissed ‘Regular’

and Readied

within the sensitive

Telescopic… r-e-a-c-h…

of Intuition.

‘To Market’ we Lose

to Gain… and,

a swinging ‘Gamble’

can Tumble DOwn

an entire ‘Bloodline’

… with a breath-taking

“… Oh no, that was so Close.”