Somewhere Else Writers (SEW) May 2021 Dave Walklett

Two very different poems by writer Dave Walklett are featured this month. Dave is a former Drama teacher and Director of Expressive Arts at a Swindon school, retired and resident in Cirencester with his family since 2015. He now works, occasionally, as a relief Library Assistant, mostly in Fairford and Cirencester libraries.

He is currently studying for a Masters Degree in Creative Writing with the Open University, and most of his creative energy is dedicated to that. He has written poetry, short stories and the book for a musical based on ‘Alice in Wonderland’. At the moment, he is writing a novel centred on the activities of an Amateur Dramatic Society: something of which he has a great deal of experience. When not writing, he likes to listen to Rock Music and play along on his guitar.

His daughter says he’s an ‘old hippy’.

Dave’s work can be read at cirenscene.com.

More work by local writers can be found at somewhere-else-writers.org.

POST MORTEM
He eases the front door closed on the last departing guest
turns
leans
listens to the silence.
Returns to the melancholy
to which he’s become accustomed.

Forty-three years together
a mere moment:
a lifetime since she’s gone.

When we retire
we’ll move to a smaller house and
we’ll buy a campervan
take a cruise
we’ll lose our eyesight and our health
we’ll watch each other die.

He eases the front door closed on the final mourning guest
and wonders what he will do
tomorrow.

Dave Walklett

DENNIS KELLY
Dennis Kelly loved his telly;
Watched it all the time.
Dad said: ‘Son
Your eyes’ll go square,
Your brain’ll turn to slime.’

But Dennis Kelly kept watching telly:
He laughed off what his dad said.
‘Til one day in the mirror it shocked him to see
There was STUFF coming out of his head.

It oozed from his nose, from his mouth and his ears;
Out from his eye sockets too.
And ten minutes later all that was left
Was a Dennis-sized pile of GOO.

Dad shouted loudly ‘I told you so!’
But his Mum just cried and cried.
They scooped the GOO into a colourful pot
And set it beside their bedside

And now to the moral of this sorry tale:
Be careful what you do.
Don’t watch too much telly
Like poor Dennis Kelly:
You might end up as GOO too.

                                                Dave Walklett