Jonathan Butcher- Two Poems

The Chief

That influence, first triggered by the words scrawled on

the side of the late night garage. Under drunken assumptions

my clumsy translations didn't help your cause but only added 

to your legend that lasted about as long as my interest.

Your final vision blossomed and sliced through the usual

arbitrators of mundane nothingness like a verbal blade slicing

poison Ivy that had over stayed its welcome.Their voices now

as blank as the empty bars they inhabited each evening.

Your wisdom passed down, dictating the £2 cider bottles and

low quality acid tabs. Those mundane streets we carved to

form our own meaning now took shape, becoming as all

consuming as intended but without the expected effort.

And from your hands those vivid colours emitted from spray

cans and pens, each finished article carried our first vital

summers. They have now however faded and smudged into

one shade of unfortunate brown, under which you're now enslaved.

The Other Side

Dawn in this city is never crowded, but the remnants

of gangs and couples litter this tiny park. I awake upon

both the grass and concrete, slowly merging into this

morning like leaking oil into grit filled rain puddles.

Those buildings and shops that never scrape skies yet

stand with the same pride as twenty years ago. They stand

sandwiched between the rubble filled abandoned car parks,

and the pubs that never seem to open when required.

No wall here is too grey, the paint work as alive as this

lit street at midnight, never stained by the smog and bile.

The shadows cast here are almost translucent and out of

focus, the pavements never claim foot prints; no soles ever

burnt.

The blank eyes that now pass at this time never make contact,

and retain any secrets held, repudiating any reprehensible  

myth making as the first bus of the day hisses slowly past

and once again leaves behind that inhalable cloud of dust .

Jonathan Butcher has been published in various print and online publications

including: The Belleville Park Pages, Popshot Magazine, Elbow Room, Dead Beats,

Electric Windmill Press, Underground Voices and others. He has forthcoming work

appearing in Ink,Sweat and Tears,The Transnational Magazine and The Eunoia Review.