Poetry Competition Ends 8th October 2024 2:13am
Describe What You do for a Living
slipalong
Forum Posts: 843
Dangerous Mind
41
Joined 1st Jan 2018Forum Posts: 843
My first job as the undertakers assistant
The firm was called Graves Brothers and stood just off the High St in Bury St Edmunds,
three immaculatly polished Mecedes Benz estates with extended wheel bases stood in a nearby yard. A horse drawn hearse was housed in a small barn, a black cob was hired from a local stables to pull it when required. As a junior partner, I was transport manager but for some unfathamable reason I was knicknamed CD, generaly considered back room staff, "Dont you go skipping off CD we need two cars by 10am, Mr Graves Snr quiped. Not allowed to meet the grieving relatives, just told to nod and look deferential. I always thought I could carry off the empathy performance as well as all the old guard.
Right, I thought better get the mortors cleaned out, You would think an easy job, but all those wreaths and flowers harbour a host of nasties, insect, spiders, wasps and sometimes bees, what worse than the funeral party screaming behind the driver, trying to get the windows open, Its enought to revive the corpse. I hear you ask did It ever happen causing an accident ? yes and a chilling one its is!
Sometimes we must conduct a funeral for somebody intestate, with no finance or equity, paid for by the local authority these are heart wrenching affairs. A truly horrific accident when the driver was surrounded by a huge swarm of bees on the way to a creamation completly blocking the drivers vision. The hearse turned over after crashing into undergrowth, I was sent to recover the coffin in the utility van.The coffin lid badly damaged. I removed it back at our premisis, the corps wearing a distinctive smirk. I remembered the bible quote "death where is thy sting. grave thy victory" apparently the recently deceaced being a bee keeper, having hives on his allotment.
After an article published in the local rag and picked up by the media, Henry Sugar had a Just Giving page that raised enough for a decent funeral, bees wax candles for each to light and an an open coffin,I was allowed to dress him in his white suit and hood, The hymn- How sweet the name of Jusus sounds- sung with gusto and reflect on events and some presonal satisfsction to help with a final dignified closure
Written by slipalong
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Ahavati
Tams
Forum Posts: 16242
Tams
Tyrant of Words
121
Joined 11th Apr 2015Forum Posts: 16242
I really enjoyed the imagery of this one, Slip. I had a best friend in high school whose family had owned a funeral home for generations; he inherited it after his father passed. I've heard stories and could never go inside unless I had to. The energy was just too...well, whatever it was.
olliec
Oliver Cocks
Joined 15th Oct 2023
Forum Posts: 3
Oliver Cocks
Lost Thinker
Forum Posts: 3
The Friends Picnic
CW:
sexual assault
Two friends sit
at a picnic,
at the beach.
One, a teacher.
A woman.
Into men.
The other, a waiter.
A man.
Into men.
So, she doesn’t need to fear
the request for sex.
Been friends since school.
And now, both twenty-six.
Life’s proceeding.
Will continue to.
The students
often scrabble.
And shout
at her.
And never
seem to
do work.
But she
enjoys her job.
She laughs.
Smiles.
Gazes at
the high noon sun.
Turns to him.
Smiles still deeper.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” he grins.
“Glad I had the day off,”
she says.
Just then, she returns.
To. To that person.
That man.
Who claimed
himself her friend.
And… One night…
His hands.
She shudders,
as slightly as she can.
Turns back
to the cresting sun.
Then back
to him.
And she smiles.
Rent empties her.
Bills shear.
And life often thwacks.
But now, they can sit.
Here.
They can picnic,
two sunlit battlers,
illuminated warriors.
sexual assault
Two friends sit
at a picnic,
at the beach.
One, a teacher.
A woman.
Into men.
The other, a waiter.
A man.
Into men.
So, she doesn’t need to fear
the request for sex.
Been friends since school.
And now, both twenty-six.
Life’s proceeding.
Will continue to.
The students
often scrabble.
And shout
at her.
And never
seem to
do work.
But she
enjoys her job.
She laughs.
Smiles.
Gazes at
the high noon sun.
Turns to him.
Smiles still deeper.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” he grins.
“Glad I had the day off,”
she says.
Just then, she returns.
To. To that person.
That man.
Who claimed
himself her friend.
And… One night…
His hands.
She shudders,
as slightly as she can.
Turns back
to the cresting sun.
Then back
to him.
And she smiles.
Rent empties her.
Bills shear.
And life often thwacks.
But now, they can sit.
Here.
They can picnic,
two sunlit battlers,
illuminated warriors.
Written by olliec
(Oliver Cocks)
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Ahavati
Tams
Forum Posts: 16242
Tams
Tyrant of Words
121
Joined 11th Apr 2015Forum Posts: 16242
Hi, Ollie. I found this submission very disturbing on a subconscious level that I can't quite place into words. The imagery is extremely vivid, and the innuendos open enough for each reader to interpret a past, present, and potential future. Well done.
oldmanG
Joined 22nd Sep 2024
Forum Posts: 14
Twisted Dreamer
Forum Posts: 14
Night Stalker
From the beginning of time
Monsters are real not just in nightmares
By candlelight under a full moon
Drinks my blood to live my sins
But he escapes my dreams
The mist of midnight reveals who he is
Only a few hours till sunrise clouds shift about
Sliver of Sun is a Crucifix to a black heart
Tv people misread the news
He died in 1923 but he’s killing at the millennium
Crossing the globe sewing murder
Drinking the blood of Las Vegas
Shot twenty times at close range
Tosses cops into the pool
Leaps from a window should’ve broken a wing
He lands like a cat running in darkness
Vegas girls on the run trying to keep their blood with them
Kolchak is The Night Stalker trying to save em
Find out where he dies until sundown
Slip in the house while he’s a Coffin
Looking to make Sunrise his final sentence
Making too much noise even to wake a demon sleeping
Las Vegas Man Hunt on a grand scale
Seconds before sunrise can I survive
Chases me down until doomsday
I grab a curtain pull some Sun to kill him
Drive a stake into his vampire heart
Kolchak is the Night Stalker
Monsters are real not just in nightmares
By candlelight under a full moon
Drinks my blood to live my sins
But he escapes my dreams
The mist of midnight reveals who he is
Only a few hours till sunrise clouds shift about
Sliver of Sun is a Crucifix to a black heart
Tv people misread the news
He died in 1923 but he’s killing at the millennium
Crossing the globe sewing murder
Drinking the blood of Las Vegas
Shot twenty times at close range
Tosses cops into the pool
Leaps from a window should’ve broken a wing
He lands like a cat running in darkness
Vegas girls on the run trying to keep their blood with them
Kolchak is The Night Stalker trying to save em
Find out where he dies until sundown
Slip in the house while he’s a Coffin
Looking to make Sunrise his final sentence
Making too much noise even to wake a demon sleeping
Las Vegas Man Hunt on a grand scale
Seconds before sunrise can I survive
Chases me down until doomsday
I grab a curtain pull some Sun to kill him
Drive a stake into his vampire heart
Kolchak is the Night Stalker
Written by oldmanG
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Ahavati
Tams
Forum Posts: 16242
Tams
Tyrant of Words
121
Joined 11th Apr 2015Forum Posts: 16242
Anonymous said:<< post removed >>
Thank you for your entries; however, according to comp guidelines, there can only be one submission per poet. I will give you until tonight to select which entry you want to remain in the comp. Because you can't delete a forum post, what you'll have to do is select the "Edit" button, delete the link to your submission, and type "Edited" or "Deleted" and then "Save".
If you haven't deleted an entry by the morning, I'll have the mods hide your second submission.
Thank you for your entries; however, according to comp guidelines, there can only be one submission per poet. I will give you until tonight to select which entry you want to remain in the comp. Because you can't delete a forum post, what you'll have to do is select the "Edit" button, delete the link to your submission, and type "Edited" or "Deleted" and then "Save".
If you haven't deleted an entry by the morning, I'll have the mods hide your second submission.
Grace
IDryad
Forum Posts: 16884
IDryad
Tyrant of Words
125
Joined 25th Aug 2011Forum Posts: 16884
The Fourth Estate
the ink like blood flows thick
seeping and bleeding onto whiteness
innocence trapped within cracks
flowing in glee into unread stories
chasing whispers, screams and laughter
in thin air imagined a killing fields
ever alert eyes and ears ever eager
a vulture to news picking the carrion
there are truths and lies assumptions
to be untrue for the masses but the rest
wants the white bone to shaved off flesh
to scrutinize to grumble about or to airy chat
headlines scream blatantly on the screen
the papers painted in huge words shared
a byline on the frontpage to die for
a junior page enough to win a smile
digs for the dirt to upload horror
to share someone else's fear
tragedies eagerly sought for
deaths and disaster the first para
the heart of the craft
is tough and calloused
the soul deals in chilling refrain
in every truth told
at least
one soul is slain
seeping and bleeding onto whiteness
innocence trapped within cracks
flowing in glee into unread stories
chasing whispers, screams and laughter
in thin air imagined a killing fields
ever alert eyes and ears ever eager
a vulture to news picking the carrion
there are truths and lies assumptions
to be untrue for the masses but the rest
wants the white bone to shaved off flesh
to scrutinize to grumble about or to airy chat
headlines scream blatantly on the screen
the papers painted in huge words shared
a byline on the frontpage to die for
a junior page enough to win a smile
digs for the dirt to upload horror
to share someone else's fear
tragedies eagerly sought for
deaths and disaster the first para
the heart of the craft
is tough and calloused
the soul deals in chilling refrain
in every truth told
at least
one soul is slain
Written by Grace
(IDryad)
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Ahavati
Tams
Forum Posts: 16242
Tams
Tyrant of Words
121
Joined 11th Apr 2015Forum Posts: 16242
Ohhhhh Grace! Excellent entry and so applicable!
wallyroo92
Forum Posts: 1845
Tyrant of Words
151
Joined 11th July 2012Forum Posts: 1845
Infestation of the Bawdy Snatchers
They don’t lurk in the shadows like they used to
Instead, they hide behind a device with prying eyes
Closely watching their every step, move and action
Sometimes approaching them with convincing lies
Oftentimes they cast a net with maliciously intent
As a young innocent victim falls for their trap
And much to their horror they find themselves
Fighting to find what they lost by a click in a snap
But then I sound the warning horn from the deep
Scanning the figures that fell all the way through
And with calculations I sit there in judgement
Weighing in and deciding what’s false and true
I can only help and try to save a few out of the many
In the era of the con artist, fraudster and scammer
It’s an infestation of bawdy snatchers most uncouth
As I attempt to catch them so I can drop the hammer
Instead, they hide behind a device with prying eyes
Closely watching their every step, move and action
Sometimes approaching them with convincing lies
Oftentimes they cast a net with maliciously intent
As a young innocent victim falls for their trap
And much to their horror they find themselves
Fighting to find what they lost by a click in a snap
But then I sound the warning horn from the deep
Scanning the figures that fell all the way through
And with calculations I sit there in judgement
Weighing in and deciding what’s false and true
I can only help and try to save a few out of the many
In the era of the con artist, fraudster and scammer
It’s an infestation of bawdy snatchers most uncouth
As I attempt to catch them so I can drop the hammer
Written by wallyroo92
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Ahavati
Tams
Forum Posts: 16242
Tams
Tyrant of Words
121
Joined 11th Apr 2015Forum Posts: 16242
I really enjoyed the content of this, Wally. I am reminded of a judge dropping the hammer on the guilty! Well done and thank you for entering.