Shouting

My voice is very loud

So loud, that at full strength
It can demolish a building

My voice sounds normal to you
Because I am whispering
Very, very quietly.

When I was six
I became so excited
Watching a football match
That I shouted
And deafened several players
The shock wave
Burst the ball.

No one knew it was me.
A freak underground explosion
The local paper said.

As I grew
So did my shout

 When I was nine
My mother took me for tests
She explained to the doctor
About my voice
But you could see he didn’t believe her

I remember wondering
What would happen to him
As the ambulance drove him away

Las Vegas

I need a bigger pen

to write about Las Vegas

and a bigger book to write it in
A pen
with pictures of Elvis
or the Rat Pack
etched on its barrel
picked out in diamonds
and rubies
A book
covered in the skin of okapi
its leaves rolled from the finest papyrus
stolen from a Pharoah’s tomb

And I must clear my mind
as I write about Vegas
of Elvis singing Heartbreak Hotel
to the jingle of slots
and Frank singing
My Way
on a loop
from here to eternity