A Big Thank You


I would like to thank the bluebird
for introducing me to the concept of evil.
Also, a note of gratitude to that cat-thief 
in Copenhagen for relieving me of my worldly bounty
(you know who you are).
Some of these pauses were first published
in the Giant Book of the Head.
Without the assistance of spectres
this line would never have seen the light of day.
And I want to take this opportunity 
to mention the red-assed sprites
cavorting in my mind, and to also thank them
for their unquestioning support,
as well as the bent angels, their advice 
being given freely, whether called upon or likewise.
Lastly, a big nod and wink to the blind horse,
for which none of this would have been,
or should have been, made possible.




    Carrying On In The Same Manner


Nobody remembers how the universe ended.
Some aren’t even aware that it did.

“Imagine Creation’s Big Bang, but in reverse,”
suggested a prominent physicist,
time scattering like shattered molecules.
Time a monster with a lamb in its mouth.
Earth shaking like a ride at a fairground.

“Carry on as if nothing has happened,”
the constable talking in his sleep instructed.
“Things are in the saddle and they ride mankind,”
Emerson obliquely commented from the garde de robe,
unaware he’d been dead for many decades,
the cosmos reverting to its standard darkness.

 

                           Double Feature


An empty cinema, a few last shattered dreams going about 
the business of expiring. You can practically hear the stars 
in dialogue. You can sense the disbelief, suspended from 
a spider’s web-strand ever since the advent of the talkies. 
On the ‘silver screen’ is a fine powdering of laughter and 
ashes. In the back row are two apparitions locked in a kiss, 
quite oblivious to the Age of Reason. 

Bruce McRae, a Canadian musician, is a multiple Pushcart nominee with poems published in hundreds of magazines such as Poetry, Rattle and the North American Review. The winner of the 2020 Libretto prize and author of four poetry collections and seven chapbooks, his poems have been performed and broadcast globally.