Yogesh Patel
The cutting room
After dementia
Psychological Continuity
But for the edits…….Gran was trapped
in the storylines…….broken & fragmented
with grandpa directing the day’s set
with props…. in chaos …….& a jumble on a stage
Not allowed so holding my hand…….she’d plead
for a snuff box so can sniff the only memory
An Establishing Shot
I walk in the park in a red hat
as an odd ball out of social sync
convinced… I still have a place…. in some plot
But everyone’s at the wrong age
I wish for deus ex machina
Then you…….guest appeared………..holding my hand
Love and hate in SFX
When one’s memories are canned & jumbled
shots………..with the missing clapperboard frames
and a filter of vision replaces the sun
as a moon to make life a special effect
to unfold the day as a night………..without stars
what’s the order……of kisses and slaps?
Frankenbiting
For mist’s transition to the dispersion
what needed was the sad sound-track but
a tomfoolery of ghosts from a flashback
would rewrite the reality ……….demand a laugh-track
Gran would chuckle ……….with my mind in hopscotch
And there!….. You laugh….. at Mrs Brown’s Boys!
Yogesh Patel is (most recently) the author of The Rapids, which can be purchased here.
Yogesh Patel has received an MBE for literature in the Queen’s New Year Honours list 2020. Internationally celebrated for his work, he runs Skylark Publications UK and a non-profit Word Massala project to promote poetry. Having been honoured with the Freedom of the City of London, he has LP records, films, radio, a children’s book, fiction and non-fiction books, and three further poetry collections to his credit.
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