SWEET CHARITY

Dear Mr. Bates, please may I
apply to your foundation
for funds to build a hospital
in our country. You could visit
with a television crew
once the building was completed.
We might even name a ward
for you so you can come
in a helicopter and be photographed
speaking to mothers
nursing skeletal infants,
awaiting AIDS medication
and food. This one was raped
by militia after they had butchered
her son and husband
in the village square. Mr. Bates,
if you could not build a hospital,
perhaps a factory will do.
Our government is offering good rates
to foreign investors with a mind
to make our country great. Our people
are desperate for work
and money and food. Electronics
is the future, Mr. Bates, and our country
has the skills but not the means.
A six-figure sum could build a workshop
and a school. We would not ask
for much by way of wages.
I'm sure you'll find our terms
competitive. Think of all we could earn.

The ladies fan their sweat with jeweled hands
and sip Tom Collins. The gentleman kick back
with gin and slims, smoking finest Havanas.
They tip the waiters handsomely,
easing the pain of their savagery.

MEMORIAL

This poem is for those who have suffered or died from cancer. I have set up a just giving page for Cancer Research UK here: Click here

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Acute myeloid leukemia
Adrenocortical carcinoma
Anal cancer
Appendix cancer
Astrocytoma

Basal-cell carcinoma
Bladder cancer
Bone tumour
Brainstem glioma
Brain cancer
Breast cancer
Bronchial adenomas/carcinoids
Burkitt's lymphoma

Carcinoid tumour
Carcinoma
Central nervous system lymphoma
Cerebellar astrocytoma
Cervical cancer
Childhood cancers
Cholangiocarcinoma
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
Chronic myelogenous leukemia
Chronic myeloproliferative disorders
Colon cancer
Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma

Desmoplastic small round cell tumour

Endometrial cancer
Ependymoma
Esophageal cancer
Ewing's sarcoma
Extracranial germ cell tumour
Extragonadal germ cell tumour
Extrahepatic bile duct cancer

Gallbladder cancer
Gastric cancer
Gastrointestinal carcinoid tumour
Gastrointestinal stromal tumour
Germ cell tumour
Gestational trophoblastic tumour
Giloma
Gastric carcinoid

Hairy cell leukemia
Head and neck cancer
Heart cancer
Hepatocellular cancer
Hodgkin lymphoma
Hypopharyngeal cancer
Hypothalamic and visual pathway glioma

Intraocular melanoma
Islet cell carcinoma

Kaposi sarcoma
Kidney cancer

Laryngeal cancer
Lip and oral cavity cancer
Liposarcoma
Liver cancer
Lung cancer
Lymphoma

Macroglobulinemia
Malignant fibrous histiocytoma
Malignant glioma
Medulloblastoma
Melanoma
Merkel cell carcinoma
Mesothelioma
Metastic squamous neck cancer
Mouth cancer
Multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome
Multiple myeloma
Mycosis fungoides
Myelodysplastic syndromes
Myelodysplastic diseases
Myeloid leukemia
Myeloproliferative disorders

Nasal cavity and paranasal sinus cancer
Nasopharyngeal carcionma
Neuroblastoma
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
Non-small lung cancer

Oral cancer
Oropharyngeal cancer
Osteosarcoma
Ovarian cancer
Ovarian epithelial cancer
Ovarian germ cell tumour
Ovararian low malignant potential tumour

Pancreatic cancer
Parathyroid cancer
Penile cancer
Pharyngeal cancer
Pheochromocytoma
Pineal astrocytoma
Pineal germinoma
Pineoblastoma
Pituatary adenoma
Plasma cell neoplasia
Pleuropulmonary blastoma
Primary central nervous system lymphoma
Prostate cancer

Rectal cancer
renal cell carcionoma
renal pelvis and ureter, transitional cell cancer
Retinoblastoma
Rhabdomyosarcoma

Salivary gland cancer
Sezry syndrome
Skin cancer nonmelanoma
Skin cancer melanoma
Skin carcinoma
Small cell lung cancer
Small intestine cancer
Soft tissue sarcoma
Squamous cell carcinoma
Squamous neck cancer with occult primary
Stomach cancer
Supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumours

T-cell lymphoma
Testicular cancer
Throat cancer
Thymona
Thymic carcinoma
Thyroid cancer
Trophoblastic cancer

Unknown primary site carcinoma
Unknown primary site cancer
Urethral cancer
Uterine cancer
Uterine sarcoma

Vaginal cancer
Vulvar cancer

Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia
Wilms tumour


A reminder that you can donate to Cancer Research UK here

MENIERES

for SM


I was helicoptering over the Gambia,
the blades whirling around my head, thundering
the dust up in windmills and eddies.
My ears were spitting white hot sparks,
the air cleaved open by the chopping rotor
and I was violently sick. I was looking
for something that didn't move. Something static.
The world was a tumble drier. Churned blankets
and clothes. A pile of rags caught up
in the agitator, turned. I was falling out of the sky.
Spiralling down. Corkscrewing pavements
and smack I was under. Diving bell deaf.
At these pressures you're listening through wool.
Movement is slower. You're floating
among the fish with hook teeth and marble eyes.


*update! Thanks to Spangle McQueen now with sound: Click Here for Soundcloud

This poem was comissioned for charity by Spangle McQueen. It is about the condition Meniere's Disease and the funds raised by the poem will go towards the Meniere's Society. I would like to thank Chris Packham and the forum members of Meniere's Disease UK.

HONEYMOONERS

for S

We were Spongebob Squarepants in Love,
living in pineapple sized soap dishes
by bath tubs of bath salt infested water.

We were Blue Lagooned on a seashell ship,
adrift in the atolls of a glittering Pacific
moored to nothing but our sun-bronzed selves.

When we surfaced we were twined in kelp,
your legs knotted in my arms and our lips,
crusted with barnacles, locked in a kiss.



This poem was commissioned for charity. You too can commission one here for just £2. Follow the instructions:
http://www.justgiving.com/Gavin-Hudson1