Day eighteen
Lesbian not Queer 2/22
Lovely lesbians leaping
Lovely leaping lesbians
Lesbians leaping
Lovely Lesbians
Sapphic showdown
Rights to hold on
Lesbians fighting
Lesbians uniting
Knowing all are
of woman born
Ah
Bronwen, Wales
Archive for February, 2022
Day seventeen
The Mince Pie Party
Mince pies, tea pots, music.
“I’d like you to meet my friend…”
A look, a beat, a smile.
That’s it. She had my heart.
Gillian McIntosh, Glasgow
Day sixteen
Party
Life’s a party when
You’re all the way down here in
The Safest Place in the World
It’s quiet and I haven’t seen a festival since god knows when.
Why go out? Just read some poetry, stay inside, contain the spread, a team of five million. Write some more poetry. Listen and do what we tell you, get vaxxed or get oust.
Write poetry.
It’s the only way to articulate these ridiculous times.
Poetry seems to keep things light during times
When darkness seems to be comfort.
We live, or we don’t, and we love and we lose and one thing that is always certain,
Is that there will always be
Words that rhyme
And plenty of spare time.
Lauren Lynch, Christchurch, NZ
Day fifteen
PARTY POLITICS
Come on, let’s have a party.
We can say it’s just business,
(as is usual).
Let’s have a mask less masquerade.
We can all come as bare-faced liars.
Let’s use the law,
(one for us)
We can say to hell with them.
Come on, let’s have a party.
Meg Williams
LLanbrynmair
Day fourteen
After the party
Martin Charlton
Dawn afire!
The rising sun spies through a gap in the curtains.
Our eyes meet across plump white pillows,
as night retreats in on itself,
taking with the man I once was.
With ’80s disco still ringing in my ears,
you smile and it lifts me higher than the gibbous moon
we danced badly beneath, in our drunken state,
as we staggered along Margate seafront.
I smile back at you – my Adonis
– my Osiris
– god of rebirth and resurrection,
whose philosophy is that anything is possible and age is just a number.
Reluctantly I had attended last night’s party and was in fact just leaving,
but the universe clearly had other ideas.
Did I bump into you? Or was it you into me?
Whatever! It resulted in my wearing your drink and the rest, as they say, is history.
So here we are,
the morning after the night before and I feel you’ve reinvented me.
You lean across and as we kiss my years
fall away into an abyss of time.
Composed: Café G, Margate, 21 February 2019
This revised and expanded edition, Turner Contemporary, 29 January 2022
© Martin Charlton, 2019 & 2022.
Day thirteen
The garden looks sad and cold. The seats covered to protect them from the leaves, rain and ice. The swinging chairs are locked down so they don’t bang and crash in the winter winds.
It’s ok, the days are getting longer now. The sun will warm the ground as a glimpse of spring bursts through the earth. The warmth of the sun and friends’ laughter will leave the long nights and loneliness behind.
Party time will start soon and the garden will come alive again with laughter, love and happiness. Roll on summer …
come on, let’s party
Anne
Palm Bay, Thanet
Day twelve
But what if nobody comes?
That’s always the hosts overwhelming anxiety on the three days before their party.
They’ve done their best …
Invited X even though her X will be there and that might be awkward especially as X hasn’t met X’s new partner
Got in plenty of alcohol and non alcoholic drinks and soya, oat and cows milk. Coffee and tea, lots of tea. With and without caffeine.
Nibbles – crisps- got to be gf, vg, dairy free, lactose free, no nuts, fodmap friendly and absolutely no palm oil.
They Think J is bringing her dog so they will need to put the cat in the bedroom- which will be where everyone puts their coats and goes for ‘serious chats’ (not sex anymore sadly) so they can only hope that works.
Shoes on or off- it’s a no smoking house so that’s gonna be tricky when people wanna smoke so maybe shoes on, but not upstairs.
Loo roll – how much is a decent amount without it looking like a siege situation?
Glasses – oh no. They really don’t have anything like enough glasses . Or mugs. They ring round the neighbours.
Oh yes them – notes through all the doors warning of temporary disruption to sleep.
Finally they can relax – having covered all the important aspects .
But what if nobody comes?
Karen Fisch, London
Day twelve
But what if nobody comes?
That’s always the hosts overwhelming anxiety on the three days before their party.
They’ve done their best …
Invited X even though her X will be there and that might be awkward especially as X hasn’t met X’s new partner
Got in plenty of alcohol and non alcoholic drinks and soya, oat and cows milk. Coffee and tea, lots of tea. With and without caffeine.
Nibbles – crisps- got to be gf, vg, dairy free, lactose free, no nuts, fodmap friendly and absolutely no palm oil.
They Think J is bringing her dog so they will need to put the cat in the bedroom- which will be where everyone puts their coats and goes for ‘serious chats’ (not sex anymore sadly) so they can only hope that works.
Shoes on or off- it’s a no smoking house so that’s gonna be tricky when people wanna smoke so maybe shoes on, but not upstairs.
Loo roll – how much is a decent amount without it looking like a siege situation?
Glasses – oh no. They really don’t have anything like enough glasses . Or mugs. They ring round the neighbours.
Oh yes them – notes through all the doors warning of temporary disruption to sleep.
Finally they can relax – having covered all the important aspects .
But what if nobody comes?
Karen Fisch, London
Day eleven
After Party
We were going to have the after party at my place,
We had Queered the Pier, celebrating our opening we told the histories, the pain, the joys, the rebellions against rules you Tory boys made, kowtowing to the Archbitch high priestess of horror and shame, it took a red wimp in waiting to remind you of that which wouldn’t have happened with grandma upstairs in bed. We didn’t see it coming, pernicious and unforgiving, no favours or rescue to be bought just the wall of hearts in honour of our different kind of fallen. Underlying locked in and rule of three locked down. Barely beginning to touch the enormity of our collective losses while some have the power and shame to spare themselves and party while we carry on, we will have our after party at my place, we’ll be recovered and ready despite you.
Janet Jones, Brighton
Day ten
DAZED
There is the daze –
And then the vacant gaze –
The morning after –
A night of hedonistic laughter –
V Mason-John, Canada
FebulousFebruary 2025: Lost and Found 