FREDDO 1981-2025

 Fredo, I know now your last dream

was to visit Disneyland.

And you didn't make it.

Your sweet smile was toothless,

Your New York cap hid

a round bald head

Huge as an  oak tree

Death cut you down

at night. Alone.

43 years of age

Not unexpected but

you touched my heart Freddo

and I thank you for the

chocolates.

Of one thing I am sure,

You are in Disneyland now

on a forever ferris wheel

eating candyfloss

with Mickey mouse ears

and your happy toothless smile

brightens Heaven.

copyright L. Ivison 2025

25 September 2025

 

Being old is like saying a long good-bye

'goodbye' to autumn days,

to sudden flurries of leaves hurrying

through the cold wind.

'goodbye' to Tuesday markets

and cats and flowers and brilliant

autumn sunshine.

goodbye to fleeting clouds chasing

away the summer

and to relief that it has fled

has brightened our hearts once again

goodbye to my friends, so many gone now

just memories now.

goodbye to youth and ambition .

it is a long goodbye and

a thank you too.

L. Ivison 2025 copyright

23 September 2025

 Loulou, old lady, long past kittenhood

truly a work of art

get down and leave me in peace

do not think that youd eye-liner and

fine whiskers will move me

nor your marble green eyes and

pink nose, will persuade me.

get down Loulou, get down

I am trying to write poetry.

a faulty faximile, nothing competes

with you and your humble grace.

get down loulou and let me write

my second rate poetry.

Copyright 2025 L. Ivison

CHARLIE KIRK

 I saw your lifeless hands today

your wife weeping, kissing them

still now forever, no longer to

embrace, or write or wave

but your words are written

and still spoken, your

hands gesticulate on our screens

forever now.

God's hands will receive you in

His holy embrace.

LOULOU

 LOULOU

Green marbled eyes

your whiskers emerge from

black points.

I can see the reflexion of 

the window behind me in

your eyes which look at me

pleading or loving.

you dip your paw into my mug of milk

and like corned beef.

17 years my friend, we have been together,

never a cross word, never a scratched chair

Loulou, sweet, saintly Loulou

persecutated by the brutal Max

jealous of your calm and joyful ease.

Loulou if cats could be saints

You would win the crown.

Copyright L. Ivison 2025

LIGHT

 9th September 2025

This light, this light at 11.01 a.m.

shines through the stained glass windows

and hits these flagstones, here and there

and over there,  45 degrees. sharp light

momentary sunlight.  When was the last time

you shone so?  Last year, the 9th of September?

but no.  was the sun shining?  

how many times in 1,000 years have

you shone on these same stones at this hour?

who would know how many 9ths of September were sunny?

Streams of light, unnoticed on these warn flagstones

you have reappeared today, mysteriously,

momentarily, silently, warmly.

Copyright L. Ivison 2025

DEATH KNELL

 The bells are ringing 'Dang, ding, ding,ding,ding, Dang'

The death knell.

the deep shadows of the church

are the death knell of summer

they are silent and creep

mysterious, hidden, ignored.

you cannot ignore the deathknell 

it harkens, it is calling,

everyone of us, as we scuttle 

through the chilly streets.

tedious daily tasks call us

forgetting everyone

that one day that same bell

will ring for us

when our work is done

Copyright L.Ivison 2025