Poetry: Selections From Martin Appleby
FLUSHED
Sometimes
after
knocking one out
I think of
all that
could have been
and all
that
never will
be
my unborn
children
tiny jizz
babies
scrunched
up
in a
tissue
swirling
around
the toilet
bowl
that could
have been
a future
Prime Minister
or England
number 9
could have
been
a fucking
rock star
or a
Hollywood icon
maybe
another failed poet
like their
old man
they could
have been
an
arsehole
another
selfish, entitled
mediocre
white person
whoever
they were
I'd only
end up
disappointing
them
eventually
they'd
look at me
the way I
look
at my own
father
wondering
if
it would
have been
better for
everyone
if he'd
flushed me
down the
toilet
instead.
CALIFORNIA, HERE WE COME
Mischa
Barton from The O.C.
Recently
starred in a play
a few
towns over from mine
so my wife
and I went along
expecting
the audience
to be made
up of other
millennials
that
grew up
watching The O.C.
the play
was Double Indemnity -
a period
noir
based on
the 1940s
Billy
Wilder movie
and the
town it was in
is widely
known
for its
older population
and
abundance of retirement homes
so my wife
and I
were the
youngest people
in the
audience
by about
thirty years
and nobody
else had a clue
who Mischa Barton was.
PUNCHING HOLES IN THE SUN
For
Alice Slater
On
Instagram
I saw a
writer friend
post a
photo of a bee
suckling a
tiny vile
of sugar
syrup -
which they
carry
with them
at all times
for that
very purpose
It was the
purest
most heart
warming
thing I
had seen
on the
internet all day
all week
all year
A welcome
break
from
mindless
doom
scrolling
and I
didn't realise
just how
much I needed it -
just as
much as the bee
needed
that syrup.
Martin
Appleby is a punk,
poet, vegetarian, cider drinking scumbag from Hastings, England. His debut
poetry collection, 'In Pursuit of Expression', was published in 2025 by Earth
Island Books. He is editor of Paper and Ink Literary Zine and The
Scumrag, and runs Scumbag Press.