Equanimal

Do you think humans know that we talk about them when they’re not around ? I’ll bet they think we stick to our own kind and just sniff a lot and use our instinct and rummage in their bins and run like Hell at the sight of a gun or a megaphone or a sword after we’ve done a little dance for them.

They don’t kill us all you know. Some of us are bred or captured for the purposes of testing that humans feel the need to do. Or Fur farms. That one worries me. They won’t make me smoke cigarettes till I puke but my fur will still look good on someone.

Circuses man. The old fashioned kind where they humiliate us for the delight of small humans. They make us live like criminals; all tied up and made to perform when the whip is cracked. Miserable.

Don’t talk to me about bullfighting. Just don’t, ok. Some of the humans don’t like that either and pitch in at the end but it’s too late then for El Torro.

Oh, how rude. I’m Frankie, by the way. I’m a fox, yeah, so I know all about hunting and being chased for miles by a pack of animals who’ve been trained to think I’m a threat and that the only way to limit my influence is to corner me and rip me to pieces. I am no threat of course and the humans in red jackets and silly hats will just say it’s sport and that makes it ok. I’d like to be the one in the red jacket and let them tell me, above the rabid like barking, as their limbs tear off, that’s it’s just sport.

My friend Gretchin is around these woods somewhere. Beautiful girl she is. Dark red like her humour and a sight to behold in the air. There’s a lot of humans around so I best be careful, but they’re not in red and they only have a few placid dogs with them. They are just running around making a right racket. They must be getting hot with the bright August sun. August ? The date, oh fuck, it’s the 12th. The glorious 12 and there she goes, my beautiful red grouse. Bang. Bang. Bang and the sprint by the now not so placid dogs. Traitors.

She’s down. Just like that. No goodbyes. Just the inevitable sadness. It’s over for another year.

© Ash Cheyne 2017

Daily Word Prompt – Glorious

Flame

They had a penchant for destruction

the two of them

best friends

sisters

 

Protecting each other

from what the world may say

burning their work

preventing the damage it may do

to them, others

 

Imagine if they lived today

Cassandra and Jane

with no time to explain what they meant

in our anti social media

 

A rant  where only bad or fake

makes good news

Where you get a million hits

if you’re cruel, vicious

or just one on the nose

for something delicious

 

© Ash Cheyne 2017

Daily Word Prompt Challenge – Persuasion

 

 

Pandora

It all started beautifully, with love

Holding me in her arms

till a death from which we’d never recover

 

Near perfection

didn’t deserve the way love responds

to a change of heart and mind

 

Simply being the wrong colour to make the grade

Both of us

 

Pulling the wool

over the catch of the day

Remaining at large

with a self broken heart

 

Too young to fill such a gap

despite all the best lines

from movies we’d rather forget

 

Holding love the longest

taking her sweet time

to wish the fool under a bus

 

Speaking French, German and Spanish

and an awful lot of nonsense

 

And some fallen for with no idea at all

 

Love remains with me here now

Wise, wonderful, beautiful

without sympathy

where it’s not needed

 

Just tea and affection

and a box with no key

 

© Ash Cheyne 2017

Daily Word Prompt  – Sympathy

Paper Town

Lying here in the afterglow

watching the moon pass slowly over the southern alps

awaiting the deliberate procession of stars

and Venus then Mars

I think of how far away they all are

like the town where I was born

and, some say, failed to grow up

Where, as kids we ate ice cream on sandy beaches

by the cold North Sea

getting burned by the sun we were unacquainted with

Where, in teenage uniforms by day we played for money or pride

In Adidas Sambas by night to the pub drinking beer and rum and black

fighting boys from posher schools till we were sick

Pushing old tramps around in shopping trolleys

stealing trinkets from unlocked cars

or putting a lager tiger in their tanks

Where we watched the best bands of our lives

in tiny bars with older girls

we couldn’t afford to get within a nautical mile of

cause we had no oil money

Just a grey granite twinkle

and a degree to come

a ticket to ride

The oil is gone, consigned to history

like the paper money before it

A town that did its best to educate us

that used us up

but never once spat us out

 

© Ash Cheyne 2017

Daily Word Prompt Challenge – Educate

 

 

 

Listen

I should know by now

after all these years

of saying the right things

to the wrong people

Drowning in crocodile tears

 

I try them for size

Maybe a good fit

not quite composite

but nevertheless I’ll memorise

what I think they want to hear

 

It’s no laughing matter

standing here, alone

bearing your soul

 

Remember to enunciate

so they’ll appreciate

the time it took

to get their attention

a mention in dispatches

Passing comment at football matches

 

He’s all right he is

 

©Ash Cheyne 2017

Daily Word Prompt Challenge – Memorise

 

 

 

 

Every Third Bite

 

 

Every year

they disappear

leaving the mother

to die

Every third bite

depends on their species

and as it passes our lips

they succumb to diseases

The vanishing

nature crying out to us

of the deadly danger

Warning us

like Steiner

a hundred years ago

of the loss of the creatures

to mans deadly chemistry

Homage to the bees

for life on Earth

 

 

© Ash Cheyne 2017

Daily Word Prompt – Homage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rabbit Politics 101

All the top rabbits inhabit nice hutches in a gated community. They eat top grade organic lettuce and carrots and generally have a nice lifestyle. The have vet care if they get sick although they don’t really need it. There are several exotic breeds in the community; some with really long ears and fur of varying shades. As they are considered elite, no one cares about the different shapes, sizes and colours.

Outside the community there is a tree lined avenue where the middle rabbits live. It is also nice but smaller and expensive to keep up. Any rabbit can come into the avenue but is expected to abide by the rules. Some of the middle rabbits have health care but others can’t afford it as their hutch upkeep takes most of their income. They will never be top rabbits unless they win bunny lotto or steal from a bunny bank. They could also get laid off from work and have to go live with the lower rabbits.

These lower rabbits live in the park, which is nice but they don’t own it. They can maintain it if they want to but they don’t have much incentive. They mostly want to work but they don’t have the right skills. They don’t eat well and tend to live on what the top supermarket won’t sell. Sometimes they are forced to steal to make ends meet, especially if they have lots of babies. This makes the middle rabbits fearful of them and unwilling to help.

The top rabbits are called right wingers which is weird as they don’t have any. They are also multi coloured which then makes no sense. Many of the right wing rabbits don’t read, despite all the good carrots they eat. A lot of them are actually left wingers because they want all rabbits to be healthy and happy. They can afford to think like that but they often don’t take action to achieve change.

The lower rabbits are mostly left wingers but there are a few who have lost the plot and want big changes. They seem to hate the top rabbits and want to be just like them at the same time.

The middle rabbits work away until they die and hope that their offspring will have a better life. They are neither rich enough to choose nor poor enough to get help. Eventually, all the upheaval in other areas caused by the top rabbits trying to get more will result in outsiders flooding the area. The middle rabbits will move away to cheaper hutches far away and the lower rabbits will take over. Years later, artistic and musical rabbits will come to the area and the price of hutches will go through the roof. The lower rabbits will move back to the park and continue eat poor carrots.

©Ash Cheyne 2017

Daily Word Prompt – Inhabit