tadorna: (Default)
sheldrake ([personal profile] tadorna) wrote2007-10-14 11:44 pm
Entry tags:

Damn...

My head exploded. I hate it when that happens. Makes a right mess.

***

WHY THE HELL IS IT MONDAY TOMORROW? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? (multiply by forever)


And now! Poetry from the world of tiredness just for you you you you you!



The Parliament Hill Files (Episode 1)


It's the owl in the Ford Cortina,
He's coming around again.
I can tell from the sound of the engine.
Turn around, shut my eyes, count to ten.

No good, he's outside, the door's open.
I swallow. I look at him. "You..."
He nods. "All right, love? Good to see you."
I grip the door tight. "Yeah, you too."

He sighs, looks away, does that owl thing,
Head twisting right round to the back,
Then he reaches inside the Cortina
And lifts out a black plastic sack.

Says, "Mind if I come inside for a sec?
There's something... well, something I've found."
He stares the way only an owl can:
Unblinking eyes orange and round.

I say, "Sure," stand aside with a gesture.
He steps past me, on into the hall.
His wing touches my wrist, and it's startling.
So strange... I feel weak. I might fall.

We sit with our tea at the table.
He's left his black bag with the boots,
and the coats and umbrellas and golf clubs.
There's a smell that comes off it, of roots

And earthworms and things that go crawling
in darkness and rot and decay.
I sit with my back to the doorway,
I smile at my friend and I say:

"All right, then. What's so bloody urgent
You come around here before night?"
He's tired, I can tell (see, I know him).
He blinks, his eyes heavy with light.

"Remember," he says, "Sunny Jim?"
I nod. "From that pub down in Bow?"
"The same," says my friend with a grimace.
"Jimmy's dead. And now we've got to go."

I laugh, till I see he's in earnest.
"What the fuck do you mean, 'Got to go?'
Go where? Why? God, what are you saying?
What do I care some some cunt's dead in Bow?"

"Life's good now," I tell him. I'm frightened.
I'm sweating, I'm sick and and I'm ill.
You can't plead with an owl, but I try it:
"I've a life here on Parliament Hill!"

His head revolves slowly, it's creepy.
He's creepy, like he was back then.
You always forget, till you see him --
Pretty quick, you remember again.

"Your life," he says, distantly, coldly.
"Did you really think they would forget?
Did you think that they'd leave you alone this time?
That they wouldn't call in the old debt?"

His eyes are red gold and they burn me.
I'm like a mouse under the moon.
Behind me the dead smell is rising,
It chokes me, it fills up the room.


TO BE CONTINUED NEXT TIME MY BRAIN EXPLODES YAYZ

[identity profile] blythely.livejournal.com 2007-10-14 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
This is so brilliant. How're you managing to write about a wide-boy owl from North London? How?

You're my favourite.

[identity profile] sheldrake.livejournal.com 2007-10-14 10:56 pm (UTC)(link)
:)

I'm managing it, dear B, because my brain is so tired it has gone into the wrong places, where these sorts of owls live. I fear it may never return.

<3

love it............

[identity profile] purple-hazed.livejournal.com 2007-10-14 10:54 pm (UTC)(link)
.......................but..................

...........what happens next??!

I won't be able to sleep now!!

:)

[identity profile] sheldrake.livejournal.com 2007-10-14 10:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, come on, everybody loves a cliffhanger! ;)

Re: :)

[identity profile] purple-hazed.livejournal.com 2007-10-15 05:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I don't!!

Re: :)

[identity profile] sheldrake.livejournal.com 2007-10-17 07:22 am (UTC)(link)
I'm afraid you might have to hang on juuust a little longer...

[identity profile] boniblithe.livejournal.com 2007-10-15 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
I AM GOING TO HAVE NIGHTMARES ABOUT OWLS.

[identity profile] sheldrake.livejournal.com 2007-10-17 07:22 am (UTC)(link)
SORRY! ;)
lazulus: (dreamy bernard)

[personal profile] lazulus 2007-10-15 06:18 am (UTC)(link)
Your brain is a marvellous thing and, when you clean up the explosion, you should make sure you find all the bits and keep them in the freezer.

[identity profile] purple-hazed.livejournal.com 2007-10-15 05:24 pm (UTC)(link)
yes, we must rush her to casualty with her brain on ice so they can sew it back in again.

[identity profile] sheldrake.livejournal.com 2007-10-17 07:23 am (UTC)(link)
Waaaah, why do I have to clean my own brain up! Not fair!

[identity profile] justeeyore.livejournal.com 2007-10-15 09:44 am (UTC)(link)
Glad I didn't read this last night - I have enough trouble sleeping as it is! Creepily good.

[identity profile] purple-hazed.livejournal.com 2007-10-15 05:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Hey, Alison, there is an owl over there lurking in the corner of your bedroom.

....................and he is holding an alarm clock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[identity profile] justeeyore.livejournal.com 2007-10-16 02:08 pm (UTC)(link)
It's not an alarm clock - it's not an owl - oh no, it's Dracula!

I'm reading The Historian and I'm having terrible dreams.

[identity profile] sheldrake.livejournal.com 2007-10-17 07:24 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, I read that! Made me want to travel round looking for vampires.

[identity profile] justeeyore.livejournal.com 2007-10-17 10:38 am (UTC)(link)
I just sat out in the garden to read the last few chapters. Felt like I preferred to read it in daylight!

[identity profile] sheldrake.livejournal.com 2007-10-17 07:23 am (UTC)(link)
Heheh. Thank you! :)

[identity profile] sheldrake.livejournal.com 2007-10-17 07:25 am (UTC)(link)
Eeee, thank you! :)