A I S L E 1 6 . C O . U K » John Osborne’s Poems

Me and my sister

JOHNOSBORNE — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:04:59 +0000

I had a dream that me and my twin sister were in a car crash. We both died, but we carried on being alive inside cuddly toys. We were for sale in a toy shop and a little boy came in with his mum and she told him he could pick any two [...]

Sunflowers

JOHNOSBORNE — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:44:04 +0000

Teach yourself to worry about nothing not to dread new emails in your inbox what kind of letters the postman will bring bills dropping on the porch floor like breezeblocks

Picture your name engraved on a tombstone etched by the day you were born, today’s date. Take ten minutes extra for lunch, go home and don’t apologise for being late

Take a siesta, [...]

George Alagiah

JOHNOSBORNE — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:58:11 +0000

Every day George Alagiah practices saying the same line. The Queen is Dead. The Queen is Dead. The Queen is Dead.

He says it into the bathroom mirror when shaving, he sings it in the shower enunciates every word when driving to work, “We have some breaking news. The Queen is Dead.” He rehearses scenarios: ‘Her Majesty died peacefully in her sleep in the early [...]

I sometimes forget we’re all going to die

JOHNOSBORNE — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:00:11 +0000

It’s hard to imagine my housemate coming home to find me unconscious at the bottom of the stairs my head cracked against the radiator the carpet splattered with blood. It’s hard to imagine my family gathered in a room while a surgeon tells them ‘I’m sorry, we did all we could.’ It’s hard to imagine that I’ll collapse and a passing member [...]

The way your face lights up

JOHNOSBORNE — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:39:55 +0000

I love the way your face lights up when I go to the supermarket for milk and come back with a bottle of red wine and two Kinder Eggs and I love the way you apologise without actually saying anything instead you’ll bake flapjack or leave the door open when you’re having a bath and it’s just your way of saying sorry for spilling [...]

Slade and Wham at Christmas

JOHNOSBORNE — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:34:03 +0000

It’s so cold at six on a December morning it’s when you think about changing your job find something closer to home hopefully for a bit more money. You spend your lunchtimes emailing CVs, circling vacancies in the jobs section of the Norwich Evening News

but then you hear Slade and Wham and for a few mintues can think about sitting with your family [...]

Listening to Stuart Maconie

JOHNOSBORNE — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:55:25 +0000

You shout crossword clues while I iron my work shirts and it’s payday tomorrow and there’s a stack of DVDs we ordered on Amazon we still haven’t watched and Stuart Maconie is on the radio you like him and we’ve skyplus’d The Apprentice and it’s only two weeks until we go to New York and the chicken is nearly roasted and our friends will be [...]

NEW WRITING: We used to take drugs together by John Osborne

JOHNOSBORNE — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:29:30 +0000

I am sat by your bed on a Saturday afternoon and you tell me the things you’ve realised you’ll never do fly in a helicopter watch the Foo Fighters live do the Monopoly board pub crawl.

We went to different unis but still emailed each other most days best friends since infants when we’d play in sandpits and with Micro Machines on your bedroom [...]

NEW WRITING: Sometimes when I think about you it makes me feel a bit sick by John Osborne

JOHNOSBORNE — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:33:50 +0000

I don’t blame you for leaving me I see your new boyfriend around sometimes he seems nice, always says hello and I think he’ll make you happy.

You said any clothes you’d left at the house could go to the charity shop and the lady in Barnados beamed such a smile when I came in with a bin bag under each arm. I took [...]