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Dave Kurley

@badvibrations62.bsky.social

770 followers 1.5K following 610 posts

Poet, writer, photographer. All my own work. All my own photos. All my own teeth, too. No DMs, please - unless I know you personally. Please repost the stuff you like. First book of poems: ‘Irritating the Silver Lining’ - available to order online.

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Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 3d

It would have been my Mom's birthday today. Two years she's been gone. I wrote this for her funeral.

#poem #elegy #stillgrieving

Screenshot of my poem 'She Was' with trees in the desktop background.

She Was

She was
Rarely Patricia
Even though it was her given name
Just for forms and formalities

To family and friends
She was always Pat
But woe betide
Anyone who called her Patty

She was
Paddy in the Wraf
Cos she had one hell of a temper
And she wouldn’t call anyone ‘Sir’

She was
Nurse Whitehead
A strong, brave, stubborn single mother
To a son who always called her Mom
Not Mum, Mom. No idea why
It’s not as if we were American

Some said she was a ringer
For Sophia Loren, even though
In her youth she preferred a Triumph
To a Vespa, and then

She was Nurse Kurley
With an instant family
(just add marriage)
And then she was Grandma
And then she was a carer
And then she was a widow
And then she was a little old lady

But she was always Mom
To me
Not Mum, Mom

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Reposted by Dave Kurley

Dawn McLachlan @deemclachlan.bsky.social · 6d

This week’s #poemsabout prompt is #mannequin
Due to illness my poem is short and dark from fever dreams and the news.
@thebrokenspine.co.uk @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social #poemalttext #UseAltText #poetrysociety #poetsonbluesky #poemsforpeace

Mannequins
By Dawn McLachlan

She thinks of them as mannequins
Lined up
Nameless
Cold and still
Too many to count
Beyond the rope-stitched canvas
She can see rows of them
With their hideous labels
She thinks of them as mannequins
Because to say "shroud"
Is to drown in grief

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Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you 🙏

Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 5d

Mannequins are, I think. Human-like, but empty. Thank you, Sue.

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Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 5d

‘I am the silence/that stares back’ - ooof! Brilliant!

Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 5d

This is a future documentary! Great stuff.

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Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 5d

Love it - beautifully bitter, but said with a smile!

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Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 5d

‘like a bite/that won’t let go’. Neither will those last lines.

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Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 5d

Just one more thing…

Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 5d

Grandma’s Footsteps is a theme I return to often. The freezing of a moment, the panic, the potential threat. There’s something fascinating about it. Thank you for your thoughtful and perceptive comment, Mike!

Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 5d

Don’t blink!

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Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you very much, Debra!

Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 5d

Wow, thank you so much!

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Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you, Paul!

Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 5d

Yes - the tragedy of the emptiness behind it. I toyed with unwanted but settled on unwatched - it seemed sadder, somehow. Thank you, Karen!

Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 5d

Pure and perfect - the shortest short story!

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Reposted by Dave Kurley

Sue Ibrahim @sueimnw.bsky.social · 6d

For this week's #PoemsAbout #Mannequin with thanks to host @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk and all those participating. An odd one to think about. Look forward to seeing what others have written.

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Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you so much, John - what a lovely thing to say!

Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 6d

I particularly like The Short Order Chef…

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Reposted by Dave Kurley

Mike O’Brien @zoomburst.substack.com · 6d

There is some fine poetry in this week's #PoemsAbout challenge #Mannequin.I have loved the creepy horror tinged ones, and the conformist figures ones, and the cheap life ones - and the rest. I can't write anything to compare. So I have just torn a page out of an old Radio Times.

A page from an old Radio Times featuring synopses of six episodes of the detective series "Mannequin"

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Reposted by Dave Kurley

stace.bot @stacebot.bsky.social · 6d

For this week's #PoemsAbout #Mannequin, I'm thinking about big dogs.

Thank you to the host
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
and
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
and to all of the other writers.

#poetry #poem #writing #PoetryCommunity #BlueSkyPoets

mannequins

i had a dog once—
a blind pit bull
rescued from god knows where.

he tilted his head
as if he could see
straight through me.

we both knew
what it meant
to be seen,
not heard.

people said,
look at the little girl
with her big dog,
their words a chain.

back then i didn’t know much
about language.
not enough to know
that mannequin
meant little man.

but he wasn’t a dummy.
and we weren’t junk.

that grotesque diminishment
clinging all this time
like a bite
that won’t let go.

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Reposted by Dave Kurley

C. Oulens @owlnsquirrels1111.bsky.social · 6d

For #PoemsAbout #Mannequin
a little rushed up piece… but didn’t want to skip another week.
For hosts @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk
Looking forward to reading all the fabulous pieces.
#Oulens #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry
#poetrycommunity #poems #poetry

Mannequins That Wear Menace
- C. Oulens

Mannequins of designer dreams
High on pedestals
Rightly placed
so they can look down upon
from their vantage point
my wayward flab

I’m not bothered I don’t mind
I don’t stare back at them
They may have a right to frown
(though they’d rather die than do that
for fear of fine lines and crow feet)
They seem harmless anyway

They’ve worked hard for
that chiselled shape
I on the contrary have not
earned their wardrobes
neither through god’s flawed design
nor through my own efforts

And believe it or not
though I may not
openly (shh) admit (after all,
who says they love sour grapes!)
I’d happily accept a designer bod
if it was sent to me gift-wrapped

But I’m wary of those
other types—those beheaded
mannequins walking in
silicon heads—dubiously thin
Transplants
on toughened lards

swaggering on the weight of
factory-churned or limited edition
designer dreams—smirking with
sly menace at my artisan
spindle hums or at unravelling
of my wayward spins

That’s when I wonder if
I should don a Snow White-
in-Black cape and crack
some minor magique mirrors
tuning up some elfin cackles
pinched (shh again) from friends

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Dave Kurley @badvibrations62.bsky.social · 6d

Poem 209: Dollface. My contribution to #mannequin - this week’s #PoemsAbout prompt from the always amazing @alanparrywriter.co.uk! @thebrokenspine.co.uk

I’ll do some reading, replying and reposting later.

Screenshot of my poem in Apple Notes - snowy mountains in the desktop background.

Dollface

Grandma turned back
At an unfortunate moment
Dollface, undone
Frozen in place, unsettling palms outstretched
Unnatural fingers splayed
Her unwigged, tabula rasa visage
Tearless painted eyes blank
Unshuttered casements housing no soul
Her cruel, short-sleeved safari suit
In beige
A testament to unfashion
Dollface, dressed to fill
Space in an unwatched shop window.

© Dave Kurley 2025

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Reposted by Dave Kurley

Fiftywords @fiftywords.bsky.social · 6d

Hans Bellmer made surreal and unsettling dolls in the 1930s, bodies broken, reassembled, uncanny. But here, the doll has her own voice. #PoemsAbout #Mannequin Thanks to @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk

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Reposted by Dave Kurley

Paul Brookes @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social · 6d

For #poemsabout #mannequin @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk

Our Mannequin Life

There is a myth
that once upon a time
we could move our limbs
of our own free will,
that AI did not
have to move us,
to feed us. Once,
we were not mannequins.

They claim Ai has removed
all evidence of this time.
Clearly, this belief is a form
of madness. We have been,
and always shall be cared for
by AI. Freedom is a myth.

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