Saturday, 24 August 2019

Poem I wrote for Karissa Lang


Heuchera
For @karissalanguage

There are gimmicky hats
with hot-glued flowers
to attract humming-birds
and make your blog go
viral
but my virtual friend
the moonlighting clairvoyant
knows of magic plants
chocolate ruffles
red spangles
coral bells
to add colour to the shade
with native American resilience
scarlet, chartreuse, bronze,
silver, purple, marmalade
nectar-rich
to tempt the
ruby throats
and violet crowns.

Tuesday, 18 December 2018

#YANYR

I am really proud to have my poem Horse Chestnuts included in the You are Not Your Rape anthology edited by Tianna Hansen and Kristin Garth, Rhythm and Bones Press.

So much love and respect to the editors Tianna and Kristin for nurtuing this project and for my fellow contributors.

https://www.rhythmnbone.com/books

Net profits go to https://www.rainn.org/







Wednesday, 31 October 2018

Night Witch Upgraded to Level 5




My eyes always glowed azure, you know.
But now folk really fear me.
Quarrelsome trolls
are squealing:
‘Get the necro-bitch a nerf’.

A crimson mist
swirls
malicious
around my skirt hems.  
My latest bat-spawning speed excites me.

Come on,

try to destroy me

and watch me retaliate -
an orgasmic explosion,
a metamorphic burst –
a blitz of brutal black butterflies.

Tuesday, 30 October 2018

1984 Letter

A letter i wrote in 1984 has been published in the Handwritten issue 2 of Sad Girl Review.

There's also a photo of me in 1984 ...with green hair.

Check it out. It's a gorgeous journal.

http://sadgirlreview.com/

Water of Fire

I am delighted that my poem Water of Fire is in the Samhain 2018 edition of Three Drops from a Cauldron and in some fabulous company.

(Trick or) Treat yourself and check it out

https://threedropspoetry.co.uk/2018/10/28/three-drops-from-a-cauldron-samhain-2018/


Friday, 13 July 2018

if you buy me a coffee https://ko-fi.com/spangle I'll donate the money to SOS MEDITERRANEE France.


The Grandkids July 13th 2018

When you turn up I’m sitting tutting at the telly.
Row row! Row row!
You interrupt my muttering about
the visiting narcissistic fascist
responsible for the caging of
children.

I switch to YouTube and we sing:
Row row row your boat
Gently down the stream!
We scream at crocodiles.
We roar at lions.
We shiver at polar bears.

And I shed tears for all the babies who died
Capsized. Denied
by hostile shores.

Saturday, 30 June 2018

Buy me a coffee...

If you'd like to support my writing and/or buy me a cuppa  without the pain of seeing me in real life, you now can at https://ko-fi.com/spangle

Thank you.

Spangs x

Wednesday, 20 June 2018

Tender Age Shelters

A question for anyone who is Christian and who thinks what is happening in the US is ok
Think of someone you know aged 0 - 13
This is the tender age
Now imagine them in a cage
Don't worry its not dirty
It's not a mess
They're with other kids
Nothing's amiss
Just a bit of toxic stress.
When Jesus said suffer
the children
Is this what he meant?

Friday, 18 May 2018

Silver



I never asked for the Moon
but it arrived
in a box
with a red heart on top.

Twenty-five years ago
the surprise
was a disco ball
hidden in a bin liner.

Love is
spherical
shiny
still spinning

Tuesday, 27 March 2018

Anna M

My poem Anna M is up at:

https://lonesomeoctoberlit.wordpress.com/2018/03/26/anna-m-by-spangle-mcqueen/

Saturday, 17 March 2018

My poem is up at Burning House Press!

I'm excited to say my poem Forgotten Astronaut is up at Burning House Press today.
Some of you friends may have seen it before but it's so cool to see it properly published and amongst other fab work including two poems by Kate Garrett-Nield!
Thanks to Amee Nassreen Broumand the guest editor who has been lovely. 
And I will always honour Liz Ferrets for getting me started with submitting x

https://burninghousepress.com/2018/03/17/forgotten-astronaut-by-spangle-mcqueen/

Sunday, 18 February 2018

Bonnie's Crew https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/bonnieandcrew

My poem Devon, August 14th 1999 is on the Bonnie's Crew website set up by Kate Garrett-Nield to raise money for the Children's Hearts Surgery Fund.

It's in the company of some amazing poems. Check it out!

https://bonnieandcrew.wordpress.com/2018/02/17/poem-devon-august-14th-1999-by-spangle-mcqueen/

Sunday, 26 November 2017

Picaroon

I am delighted to have my poem Reality TV  included in Picaroon #11
Thanks to Kate Garrett-Neild

https://picaroonpoetry.wordpress.com/2017/11/19/picaroon-poetry-issue-11-november-2017/

Friday, 22 September 2017

Dwell Collective

I am excited to have my poem in Dwell Collective's zine on display this weekend as part of an installation at Plymouth Arts Centre. Check it out

https://www.facebook.com/dwellcollectiveart/posts/408878762878417

Wednesday, 23 August 2017

I have a poem in Three Drops from a Cauldron

I'm very excited to have a poem Lulled in this months' Three Drops from a Cauldron

https://threedropspoetry.co.uk/2017/08/23/three-drops-from-a-cauldron-issue-18-august-2017/

Saturday, 12 August 2017

Wordmongering

Wordmongering
Perhaps Potus No45 is overcompensating for his impotence, which he projects as importance
saying his arsenal is more powerful and far stronger than ever before. It’s very powerful.
And to ensure that the world believes him, he threatens Kim Jong Un with fire and fury,
while Fox and friends prefer to comment on his domestic feuds with nuclear wordplay:

Senators learn the hard way about the fallout from turning on Trump

We watch the war of words escalate.
Incendiary rhetoric at a rate
of 140 characters per shot

U.S. Pacific Command assures us that
#USAF B-1B Lancer #Bombs on Guam
stand ready to fulfil USFK’s #FlightTonight Mission
-          If called upon to do so.

@realDonaldTrump tweets that military solutions are now fully in place
locked and loaded. The Armada may or may not be steaming
to the Peninsula, very powerful, a very powerful presence,
a very prudent deterrent. There’s going to be big big trouble.
Secretly we’re not sure if he knows his arsenal from his covfefe
and we joke, nervously, about child-proof locks on his satchel,
the President’s ubiquitous football.

We ponder whether his pants are on fire due to strategic lies
or idiot blunder.  
We wonder if he could he trash talk us into war
or is this an irrational fear?

As a precaution leaflets given to
the residents of Guam warn
Do not to look at the flash or the fireball –
 it can blind you!

He’s blasé. He says:
‘Hopefully it’ll all work out.
Lots of good things can happen.’

Well, I suspect he’s been talking to Mrs May
about plans to visit the UK
because blundering Boris said he’d love to emulate
the tweeting style of his American mate
and while North Koreans test nuclear bombs
 we only threatened to show him our bums.


© Spangle McQueen 12 August 2017

Thursday, 6 July 2017

Dan and Pan



I’m blotto
Boiled as an owl
Half-shot
Half-screwed
Lit up like the Commonwealth
And loaded to the muzzle
I’m pie-eyed and over the bay

You say my valve is barely open
That I’m a dirty yellow shade
But I’ll have you know neat whiskey was poured over
This lobster

And I’m ablaze with a blue flame, my friend.

Saturday, 4 February 2017

Three Drops from a Cauldron


My poem For Liz about the lovely Liz Ferrets has been published in the Three Drops from a Cauldron Imbolc 2017 edition

http://www.lulu.com/shop/kate-garrett/three-drops-from-a-cauldron-imbolc-2017/paperback/product-23047330.html

Monday, 21 November 2016

Maybe the Ex-Queen ...for Melly

Maybe the Ex-Queen

In my dream I was packing for Anjuna
clothes selected for your funeral
tightly pressed in your old suitcase
and I ripped a page from a book
with a special poem, but I didn’t look
and now I’m awake I’m at a loss
as to what it was
 – perhaps Fleur Adcock?

 I know you knew if I was well enough
I’d have come while you were alive
I’d have tended to your needs
and you to mine
and we’d have fought
as we always did
trigger happy tarts
targeting each other’s hearts
in a transactional analytical field day kind of way

but now we were in our fifties
we had a nifty plan
to meet on the beach
(in Goa or Brighton)
and try out some gentler manoeuvres

One two three four
I declare a thumb war

Fuck!
I didn’t think you’d come astride a terrestrial body,
your hair crackling, your eyes like comet-sparks*
the Full Moon in Taurus
as close as she’s ever been
to Earth in our lifetime,
but I’d never doubted that you’d win.

No, I never doubted that you’d win.

* Fleur Adcock’s The Ex-Queen among the Astronomers

Thursday, 17 November 2016

For Melanie Swallow who gave me the title and last line

Candyball Crushers
once upon a moon
my candy crush and me
were gorgeous
the fiercest peroxide hellraisers
riding the waltzers while rushing our tits off
spinning like sugar in a candyfloss maker
but not pink and fluffy
we’re hardcore for life
tough disco biscuits, spangled and fun

looking for guys with sweet balls of gum