A bad boy
is not so bad.
A bad man
is not so good.
*
Rachel McAlpine
Poems
Youth is juice
Youth is juice
youth is couth
and jumble
and youth
is jig-a-jig-jig.
*
Rachel McAlpine
Oh lucky Max
‘Today was the worst day
in my whole entire life.
Five bad things happened.
- I forgot my lunch—again.
- I missed out on play lunch.
- Celia hit me with a hat.
- Then Celia hit me with some
nail polish in a glove. - At soccer people stooded
on my head.’
Oh lucky Max.
You’re six.
May you never have another day
as bad as this.
*
Rachel McAlpine
Sun
A slice of sun
on a mountain top:
this is the source of the light.
A man with feet
of melted rock:
he flies me like a kite.
*
Rachel McAlpine
A mask
In a personal
ground-level
crisis
a mask may descend.
Take it off.
Then attend
to a child
or a friend.
*
Rachel McAlpine
P.S. I am pretty sure I was in a helicopter over Dusky Sound when I took this photo.
Be nice
Ecstasy is exhausting.
Happiness is fine.
Rejoice when your pipes hold water.
Be nice to your plumber
rain or shine.
*
Rachel McAlpine
Comfort noise
Hello? Hello?
After you hang up
your obsolete handpiece
after you go,
comfort noise
swells through the holes.
*
Rachel McAlpine
Trigonometry blues
I made a mistake
at Maths Club
in my youth.
Logarithms, algorithms,
and then the aftermath.
*
Rachel McAlpine
The poetry class
Tiger words and kitten words.
Allusion and plagiarism.
Repetition and retraction.
Patterns and shocks.
Rip out the murderous.
Break the relentless.
Quip over cleverness.
Stop the clocks.
Perfectly perfect?
Chuck it away.
Rich and rubbishy?
Chocks away.
*
Rachel McAlpine
Poem about money
The poems I have lost are many
and many and many and more.
For instance, where is that
jingle about suspenders?
Now I am writing poems
about money. Poor money.
No one writes poetry for you:
there isn’t any.
*
Rachel McAlpine
Poems in the wild—Rachel McAlpine 