You grow up learning how wrong it is to shout and yell and scream Only children have tantrums Adults don’t cry Grow up! Behave! Act your age! Swallow it down Swallow it down You must be decorous, quiet and appropriate Your cries echo only around the inside of your skull You wail silently in…
Lucky country
This is the lucky country but lucky for who lucky if you’re born in the right place affluence and influence then you can have the right education make the right contacts and enter the right employment work hard and up you go aren’t you lucky Lucky that you’ve never wondered how to pay the…
Ghost city
Faded city, silent city buildings loom eerie, white on grey, shadow people pass, faceless, noiseless rushing nowhere in such a hurry there, and then gone traffic is mere wisps of movement blurs of vacant motion I can’t quite hear I can’t quite see nothing comes into focus nothing is clear no colour, no life only…
The Beast
Great beast with massive maw gobbled down all he saw looked around for more to eat waved his arms and stamped his feet He’ll eat us! the leaders said quaking in their boots with dread but wait a minute. What if we feed him first, and set him free? We’ll tell the people…
Sacred spaces
Plastics choking ocean, killing life chemicals poison soil and water like children who won’t clean their room humanity makes the mess bigger deciding it’s all too hard the rich would rather have the money and the rest, who cares what we say while our children wonder how long til we choke on our own rot…
Consider this
When you stand at the foot of the cross Consider this An innocent man is convicted And tortured to death He wasn’t the first And won’t be the last His execution is political Protecting the status quo Because fulfilment of prophecy Gets people excited And it’s all nonsense, right? Nobody really works miracles No matter…
Event horizons and sticky thoughts
Endlessly circling the point of no return Conjure up happy thoughts Sunshine and flowers But bad times stick, glue-like To the night hours Sleep time is sleepless time As dark fears call to you Staring at the black hole Gaping wide to welcome you You pass the event horizon And spiral in Forever
Winter kill
There’s beauty in white The stillness of a silent night A frozen landscape where savage snow Falls gently, spreading wings in a loving embrace Wind-chill murders in quick time While chilly death promises eternal rest Winter wonderland’s glacial show Hides deceptive drowsy warmth Before final sleep
Autumn, in the evening
The lamps are lit Reflecting autumnal gold Up from the sheen of the wet path It’s still raining lightly And I’m glad of my umbrella As I walk under the trees It’s cold, and getting colder And it’ll be good to be home Anticipating warm soup, thick with vegetables Fresh, crusty bread And maybe sweet…
My warrior
Backed into a corner with no way out On your knees and in despair He comes Not like a movie hero Wearing cool clothes and cracking one-liners Not in a blaze of magic or a hail of bullets None of that nonsense But still, He comes And before you know it You’re walking out of…
Eclectic Assemblage 