No hard feelings
for 400 yards
but beyond that distance
you can unleash
all the fury in existence
and even turn
like a firm worm
into an arrow of disaster
shot from a bow
by a vengeful archer.
Or if you prefer
you can transform yourself
into a doom-laden monster
running faster
than any athlete could
and sniffing prey out when
it hides in a wood
with the assistance of a nose
so persistent
that nothing in existence
can resist it.
No hard feelings
means only soft thoughts
are permissible
in the same way that only
easy tunes are
whistleable to lips
more familiar with quoting
comfy quips
than rugged ruminations.
Yes, whistleable
is a real word, I checked it
in a dictionary
while I was cartwheeling
up a garden path,
something I tend to do just
for the laugh
it generally affords me later.
I once knew a waiter
who jumped in alarm
when I somersaulted across
his restaurant floor
after entering the front door
on my way to my favourite
table: he wasn’t able
to control his nerves
and the meal he was bearing
ended up on the ceiling
with people staring
as it started to drip down.
No hard feelings!
That’s the issue, the nose in
the tissue, the reeling
peeling squealing teasing of
the kneeling devotee
of long-gone Don Quixote,
concealing his mirth
to prove his ultimate worth
while remaining
appealing, freewheeling,
even self-healing,
and mercifully large of girth.
Now come and join me
in the hard dance of softness
and we will prance
and caper like two wafers
stuck in an ice-cream cone
during a hurricane.
At least we won’t be alone!
My acrobatic days
are mostly over but every
400 yards or so
I twist and turn as the hard
feelings, hot from friction,
burn my soul.
Meanwhile, Don Quixote’s
dreamy head is
spinning slowly
like those festive windmill
sails on sale
at the end of
the short Cervantes season.
Rhys Hughes has lived in many countries. He graduated as an engineer but currently works as a tutor of mathematics. Since his first book was published in 1995 he has had fifty other books published and his work has been translated into ten languages.
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