CrossMouse

Pleased to say I've been locked out of my #Twitter account.

Did I say something right?

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(3)1.  Garden Cloche

I was despised. Despised and rejected,
sunk in mud. Now I am resurrected.
I am of use again. Inverted. Undignified.
Wheels waving in the air, yet I
protect your veggies and your flowers.
Use is all I crave

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30 Evolution

Who knows what strange, mutated beings
are evolving in this stream.
Changes beyond the wit of God or Gaia.
Unknown starting point.
Unpredictable result.
No-one knows how this one will turn out.

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29 Mud

The river flicks its tongue
over wire skeletons, half interred.
Licks off a coat of chrome and flows on,
Unconcerned.

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28 Racing

Let’s run down this hill together, you against me.
Let’s see whose wheels are swifter.
Let's see whose ride is smoother.
The wind will play its music on our wires,
and what’s at the bottom?
Who knows?
Who cares?

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28 Escape

There comes a time
when the confines of the world are not enough.
A wildness overcomes me
and the wind surges beneath my wheels.
The rush. The whoop of joy,
and the wind turns to rocks and stone.

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27 The Scapegoat

Back at the end
of the furthest point
of the endless line
of waiting for usefulness
is the Discarded One.
The first to show a rust.
The first to wobble a wheel.
The sins of the herd are loaded into its basket.
This one is cursed.

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26 Trolley herders

You can see them miles away,
shooing columns of discards round the ‘mac.
Who can drive the biggest herd?
Who can round up all the strays?
This one has the most,
this one was the quickest round the track.
But this one gets points for agility.

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25 Canopies

There was a time, and not so long ago,
when the vast expanse of glass above
shielded us from the rain but did not
filter out the sun.
Now it is pocked with bird shit
and the sun has stained its purity, but
it does still keep us dry.

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24 Wobbly Wheel

This was a feat of engineering.
Everything aligned.
Lines perfectly welded.
Chrome perfectly polished.
Handle perfectly clean and sterile.
But imperfection found a hole
through which to crawl.
One wheel slightly out of line.
That’s all it took.

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23  Birds

Birds are the enemy. We watch them
circle and threaten in the sky. We watch them
swoop and fasten on our rungs.
We are not made for perching and our shine
seems always to attract their splattiest dungs.

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22 Scan and go

We have made room
for the counting tool.
It is our nature to be useful
and we saw how some of you
struggle with the adding up
so we gave you a pocket
for your adding-up machine.
It wasn’t much to give,
but we still think it’s cheating.

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21 The Lost Aisles

There are aisles, down which I make my way
of which I have no memory or recollection.
One day there, the next an alien display
of products for enhancing your complexion.
Even the guides are lost,
and the trolleys register their objection.

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20  Child seat

This is my pleasure:
To carry all you value.
No purchase required.

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19  Waiting

Tomorrow things will happen, so we’re told.
Yesterday’s a long-forgotten blur.
So today we wait. Nothing will happen today
We wait. No-one tells us why.
When things happen, we will know,
they tell us. In the mean time

It's like a clown car.

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18 Discarded flyers

Some unusual animal
has made a nest in the trolley.
Something furry has formed deep litter
of coloured sheets and blurry images.
What animal could have such discrimination
to choose the harshest and most glaring sheets
to line their home.

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17  Fake coin

How much do you value me?
The trolleys know their worth;

a servant for an hour or less,
abandoned at the door,
discarded and unthanked.

Even the coin in payment is a fake
and the memory blows away
with the exhaust smoke.

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16    Where We Are

Sometimes you will find us
waiting in lines,
and sometimes scattered
to the four winds.
Sometimes you will find us
loitering with long-forgotten loads,
and sometimes huddled
in car park conferences.

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15 Directions

You ask me where to go
and I don’t know.
All directions are the same to me.
My wheels follow, but do not lead.
The floor is indifferent,
and all the aisles look the same.

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14  Promiscuity

I will be your companion
for an hour.
Where you go, I go.
What you want, I want.
I will hold your hand and at the end
I will be another’s companion,
for another hour.

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13 Rivalry with baskets 2

Open your purse to the riches on show.
Open your lungs to the scented air.
You will not grow by cramming it into a teaspoon.
You will not fit all that you desire in there.

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12    Rivalry with baskets 1

It is not for me to criticise,
but what’s the point of living large
but thinking small. I would despise
those small imitations of my grandeur
but, frankly, they are too small to notice.

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11 Dreaming

I sometimes see, above their settled ranks,
contentment rising like an easy steam.
It may not be much, it says, for which much thanks
but it’s what we are for and everything we dream.

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10 Infinite Variety

Life presents us with a palette of banality;
Mighty wheels to carry loads mightily,
specialists in toting thin materials,
grown-up carriers and sulky adolescents,
baby baskets with red flags.
We distain hand-baskets, 'cept for the elderly.

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9 Weather

Trolleys in sunshine;
happy glistening. In rain
they huddle and sulk.

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8 Temptation

Which way would you have me go.
Which way leads to more temptation.
Your servant bows a willing back,
but do you need these?
Would not those be better?
Your choice.

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7 The Angel

I have made your life so smooth.
Let me carry you with me on your journey.
I, and only I, can tell you how and where to go,
And only I can hold you when we get there.
I am your assistant and your guide.
Your gleaming guardian angel.

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6 The Mothership

I could not exist
without the Mothership.
I would not be here
without her embracing arms.

Why would I even be
without her fond embrace?
her need to fetch and carry?
She is my reason and my love.

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5 Glitter

What metal gleams so brightly in the sun
that eyes turn away?
and sunshades sprout like chrysanthemums?
The glitter of sunshine on chromium;
a beacon of hope;
a herald of plenty.