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Tag Archives: Morning Town Ride


by 8 Comments

Updated: Morning Town Ride

English: Congestion on the London Underground

English: Congestion on the London Underground

As it’s nearly Christmas, here’s a special treat. A slight re-write of one of my favourite poems, and it seems, yours—it was selected for and published in the first edition of Nain Rouge and again in Girl’s Got Rhythm.

Morning Town Ride

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

Like a
toothpaste
tube of the
hunched up,
bunched up,
crunched up,
swilled and
SPIT at
station
drain.

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

Oh oh,
get some
mouthwash.
Don’t breathe
on me
please;
last night’s
garlic
was good,
last night.

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

Finger phones,
mobiles,
mails,
thumb apps,
flickr,
angry birds,
twitter.
Overheat,
a mass,
morass

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

of smells.
Standing
room only.
Balance,
read ‘Free
Metro’, or
‘Kindle’.
Hang from
bars like
sensible
apes (phew!)

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

Save
yourself!
bump,
lurch,
sway,
sway.
Hear
wheels,
tracks,
screech.

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

iPod,
earbuds,
bleeding tracks,
jiggle.
Fan face,
cool down,
heat up,
moist hot
heaps of
humanity …
ride …

On …
morning
town ride.

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

Polly Stretton © 2012


by 18 Comments

Nain Rouge—First Edition

A little while ago, the members of dVerse Poet’s Pub were invited to submit poems to Nain Rouge a start-up online publication showcasing urban life.  This invitation came during the celebration of the dVerse first year anniversary.  The assignment was to write a poem about city life.

Sadly, this link to Nain Rouge no longer takes you to the page, but you can see my poem at Morning Town Ride.  Great to see Gayle‘s superb poem about Boston as editor’s choice on the first page 🙂


by 13 Comments

Morning Town Ride Makes Nain Rouge

Good news…you are reading the words of a stunned person…I submitted a poem to dVerse for the anniversary celebrations and it was entered for the Nain Rouge contest.  I have today received an email from Mark Durfee of Nain Rouge, who says:

Your poem MORNING TOWN RIDE made the cut not only to be published in Vol 1 Issue 1 of Nain Rouge, it was also selected by a very qualified group of writers as 1 of the top 6.

Oh boy!

Quick link to it here: Morning Town Ride


by 40 Comments

Morning Town Ride

This is the poem I submitted to dVerse for the anniversary celebrations and it was entered for the Nain Rouge contest.  Mark Durfee of Nain Rouge emailed some weeks later to say:

Your poem MORNING TOWN RIDE made the cut not only to be published in Vol 1 Issue 1 of Nain Rouge, it was also selected by a very qualified group of writers as 1 of the top 6.

I am delighted.

*****

It was grim on the tube this morning in London, so hot and humid, stinky – this came out of it …

English: Congestion on the London Underground

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

like a
toothpaste
tube of the
hunched up,
bunched up,
crunched up,
swilled and
SPIT at
station
drain.

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

oh oh,
get some
mouthwash,
don’t breathe
on me
please;
last night’s
garlic
was good,
last night.

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

finger phones;
manipulate
mobiles
for mails,
thumb apps,
angry birds,
twitter,
overheat,
a mass,
morass

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

of smells,
standing
room only,
read ‘Free
Metro’, or
‘Kindle’,
hang from
bars like
sensible
apes.

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

save
yourself!
bump,
lurch,
sway,
sway,
hear
wheels,
tracks,
screech.

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

iPod,
earbuds,
jiggle,
bleeding tracks,
fan face,
cool down,
heat up,
moist hot
heaps of
humanity …
ride on
morning
town ride.

chackety chack
chackety chack
chackety chack

Polly Stretton © 2012