MARC CARVER - POEMS

Marc Carver writes because he has nothing else to do.

​END TIMES

​The towns are like ghost towns now 
without the ghosts 
They are all herded inside the bunkers of hell with nothing to do but wait and pray and suddenly everything looks different. 
Life will never be the same again
 never 
and mankind finally got what it deserved.

CORUNA

​Come on corona come and get me,
I lick toilet seats, stand next to coughing people on the tube
but still you can't get me.
You are not as tough as you think you are.
What have I got to do 
look I am not hiding 
I am not in self isolation 
I swim in that big pool with all the dirty people I am like Jesus mixing with the lepers and the sick.
Still nothing still no sign.
They won't let me into the old people's homes surely they have it there.
I go on planes and refuse the lockdown 
people tell me all the time the news the media.
Pandemic, pandemic that shout through the tubes of glass and through the laptops.
The shopping centres are empty only me there looking for the zombies the infectious but still there is no one.
So if you have any guts Corona 
come on come and find me and we will fight it out.

LIVE TO WRITE

​I walked into the coffee shop 
told the young woman I only came in here to see her,
I will be here every day from now on she said.
See you tomorrow I said.
A sat in the sun for an hour then went to another coffee shop.
I told another young woman I only come in here to see her.
I am here every day she said
Everyday I said everyday she said.



Contempt and tender is the night
I
 read two books in four days on holiday,
 one was a masterpiece
 the other told me of a man's decay through drink and that you can never really help others. 
The masterpiece wouldn't let me alone, made me think, woke me up made me see women a new way, made me doubt her. But really told me 
what I already knew.

THE LOVER

​I hacked off my massive beard 
it took a while.
The next day we went to the restaurant in the hotel.
None of the waitresses recognised me and wondered who was sitting with my wife.
Then one of the waiters recognised me and came over.
"What happened to the beard?" He said.
"Oh no I am the lover the husband had to go home but don't tell anybody."
He laughed as he cleared away a few plates.

THE SECRET

​I took it to the garden to bury it.
Down and down I dug until I hit another one.
This one was buried deep but only because I knew that I could not open it 
It had been there since the beginning of time 
my time anyway.
It was impossible to open I knew that.
But this one had to go very deep 
now it had come to the surface again.
You see I had almost forgot about it but it had been there always just under the surface.
So I dug and I dug until I got tired and threw it in and covered it.
The next day I was refreshed from my sleep I looked out into the garden and there it was 
proud as punch for everybody to see.

A NICE POEM FOR A CHANGE

​The sea air passes through my fingers as I lift my hands into the air
 the waves orchestrate the wind 
and I push them apart 
there is nothing but this moment to conquer 
no future 
no past 
nothing.
All desires are taken away by the sea and the air.

METIER

​I stroke the keys 
wait for music to come
but I am no musician 
I can't play a dam thing.
Told a woman today that I write poetry that is my job 
she asked me what about.
I told her life
she said she knew I would say that.
About what life puts in front of me,
I don't know why I told her I write poetry
perhaps because I needed to tell her so I can sit here 
and stroke these keys.
Who knows what makes a man,

PAMDEMIC

​Everyday the clock ticks but not fast enough
I think of the perfect V
and the RSM saying if there was hair on the crack of dawn he would fuck it.#
All these memories all wrapped up as one and stuck into a mind.
A history
A life 
and on it goes even through a pandemic and flights being shut down
Will it all come to an end, no not Tom Hanks too.
Somedays I think nothing can kill me.
Even now I have to write 
nothing can stop that 
good, bad, it doesn't really matter.
Like Picasso said as he painted on that glass while the director told him how long he wanted and smoked his pipe
I can go on all night he said
Not bad for a man with no shirt on going into his seventies.
That is what people don't understand.
In life
you have to do it 
or it kills you.

SENSET SMILE

​I opened my mouth up and showed her my teeth 
just like a piano I told her.
Half white, half black.
Maybe we could melt down some of your jewelry and I could fill my teeth with that, I said.
She didn't like the idea of that.
It reminded me of Joyce the preacher telling the story about her first husband who was trying to prise the rings of her finger when she was asleep.
She got rid of him.
I said to her maybe I could get one of those gold grills that the black drug dealers have.
Then I could beam and smile at everybody dazzle them with my gold sunset smile,

CASTA DIVA

​I went out of my front door 
put my foot up on the fence and put Maria Callas, 
the one that always makes me cry on my phone with the headphones out
All of a sudden a load of birds came to a nearby three 
then they started to dance in the skies as on and on the music went.
I am not sure they have ever heard her before but they do recognize talent when they hear it.

CAIN

​I like to write poetry when I am naked
in fact I like to do everything naked
When I come out of the shower I see
again the spider 
he has a small bug and a fly in his web 
both will die.
I never realised before today that I have the mark of Cain
upon me.
A man gave it to me 
just a normal man
a fool.
I don't know why I did not work this out before 
but now I know 
everything must change

ONE HOUR FORTY FIVE MINUTES

​I went out for a walk 
a young boy from the school gave me a look.
The woman put up her hood as it started to rain after i put mine up.
The clouds looked strange 
a young girl gave me a smile but she held back from passing me but in the end she had to.
She smelled good.
i saw the man I haven't seen in a while apart from yesterday 
he has a big chain around his neck but not today 
today he runs in the rain.
I see the schoolgirl and her boy the one I saw half an hour before
he goes to hit her but in a joky way. 
Only the young can get away with this 
they walk off and I see the man I saw this morning he squeezes out a smile. then I come across the young woman I saw walk off with her dog and two beers expertly grabbed in one hand, a real pro. that was at the start of this epic walk. She sits with her girlfriend she still has a bottle and a half and a dog just like last night but later.
And i can't help but think this is all connected in some way but to what i have no idea