Conclusion

 

Conclusion is that there’s probably nothing to worry about

Well, you know how THAT goes!

Probably isn’t definitely

And a niggling voice repeats and repeats in your ear

This is it

It’s all over now

You’re going to die

Make your peace

Cry in your beer

Tell the wife you love her

You big baby!

Image by Victor Vote from Pixabay

https://pixabay.com/photos/crying-crying-man-sadness-cry-sad-4670799/

Annual

 

What goes around, comes around

Again and again and again

Like a clicking clock

Like a ticking bomb

Celebrate while you can

Again and again and again

Like a slowing clock

Like the LED flashing numbers of a bomb

A year passes by

Again and again and again

Like a stopped clock

Your heartbeat counted down to zero

Image by anncapictures from Pixabay

https://pixabay.com/photos/pocket-watch-time-of-sand-time-3156771/

A Relic

A poem from 2019

Detritus we find

A former life, encased

A relic, holy?

On display, with no plastic in sight

Keep it airtight

To stare at and talk about

A conversation starter

A conversation killer

Image by annblack on pixabay

Killing Immigrants

A poem from 2019

We are friends

You are my brother

You are my sister

I wish I could do this out of the goodness of my heart

But a man has to live

And I have to pay others

Then there’s overheads

Your life traded for your life savings

Think of the land of milk and honey

Of money for nothing

Of handsome, friendly locals

They will take care of you

A house, cash, a job, freedom

Under cover of darkness

You don’t know who’s watching

I am sacrificing myself for you, my brother, my sister

My fine boat - she is my pride and joy

Set sail

Fair winds and Godspeed

And if you don’t make it

If you drown

What is that to me?

I have your money

I hold hope in my hand

I can spin tales with my slippery tongue

I have plenty more waiting like you

Image by TheDigitalArtist on Pixabay

The Planets 5 - Saturn, The Bringer of Old Age

A poem from 2019

Time creeps on so slowly that you don’t really notice it

Unrelenting, the seconds tick by but you don’t always hear them

Sinister, how you look back and notice how much you’ve slowed down

Crawling, age becomes what it was never intended to be

Death screams in your face, on repeat

Meekly you shrink back

Bells sound, a kind of welcoming home

Still moments of joy peek through

The Planets Part 1 - Mars, The Bringer of War

A poem from 2019

Can you hear it in the distance?

The sounds of darkness approach

Tap tappy tap like morse code

Such tiny evil, barely perceptible

Is it imagination?

Drums, unmistakable

Boots on the ground, marching

Trumpets blowing, we fear

We are a peace loving people

We are not prepared for this

Ominous, our hearts melt within us

Giants emerge, wielding weapons

We run, they chase

Our steps shorter than their Goliath strides

Trapped

We are martyred

Blows crash down upon our heads

A dagger through the eyes

They are not playing

Limbs sliced off

Harsh, human brutality

Man as animals tear flesh for fun

Thunder comes from their mouths, no laughter

Full frontal assault, relentless

Intense virago, their sex betrayed

Piercing, screaming

They do not know us

Yet they hate us

They are bent on conquest

World domination

Blood soaks into the ground

We are fallen

It is quiet

Death’s silence

Death’s orgy still

21

A poem from 2018

Listen to an audio recital

21 today

Happy and (old style) gay

22 tomorrow

Life is filled with sorrow

23 on Friday

So fast it goes and he's feeling old

24 on Saturday

Life ebbing away

25 on Sunday

Feeling bright and hopeful again

26

Slapping down those cards

Happy high

One more shot

One more pill

Win or bust

It's bust

One too many

You're dead

You don't get to play another hand

26 was just a dream

27 will never be

28 in the ground

And this is how it goes from now on

And forevermore

But it only ever happens to someone else

Parent's tears

Visits to the grave

Flowers

Words

But you don't hear

That was it

A New Mourning

A poem from 2018

Dying
A sad sight
Holding on hopelessly
A little bit of beauty remains
Tainted
We wait to see
A happy sight
Full on beauty
Paradise

Photo by whoislimos on Unsplash

Sunset

A poem from 2018

She entered with a scream

A bright angel without wings

She departed with a soft groan

Her body worn away

Shrunken and shrivelled

Weak and decimated

Yet her soul rejoicing

She left to the sound of a muted trumpet

Flying to the fading light of sunset

Conveyor Belt

A poem from 2017

You sit and watch helplessly

Your life passes by in front of you

Strapped to a chair you cannot break free

Good times and bad times

Love, hate, jealousy, laughter

You cannot undo anything

You cannot do something differently

Now the first prize, now the booby prize

A cuddly toy, a teasmade, a set of crockery

You force yourself to remember each event

You want to justify your decisions

You feel so cold, so very cold

It's all so vivid, ultraHD, virtually reality

You suppress a scream

Ghosts cannot scream

You admit defeat

You stop struggling

You close your eyes

Game over

The Way Of All Men

A poem from 2017

Listen to an audio reading on YouTube...

Like a whirlwind you tore through the land

Wreaking havoc

Against you it seemed none could stand

You inspired fear

You didn't care, indifferently

Eating the bones of children, ground to make bread

Rage in your heart, unjustifiably

Oppressive regime

Haunted meme of a brand new god

Brutality, calculating

Dissent crushed

You watched the darkness you had created

And thought that it was good

You smiled, abstractedly

And yet you were brought down, suddenly

No warning, irony

That faraway look in your eyes

Your mouth slumped on one side

A numb arm

Faux-drunken speech, your close enemies pretending not to understand

Blinding pain in your head

Everything became distant

You lost consciousness

And were left to die

No longer useful, no more a threat

Meat hanging in the abattoir

And so it was announced

God is dead

And people smiled inwardly

Hoping for relief

And on that selfsame day

A poor man, hungry

Begging for bread, pitifully

His family long dead (?)

He'd slogged his guts out to put food on the table

Had made himself ill, working underground

His wife and children had been taken away while he was on nightshift, sorrowfully

He'd come home to an empty house

Under cover of darkness he ran away and somehow managed to escape, terrified,

Years elapsed

Soul slashed

Body mashed

Now in pain he lies himself down to sleep

But not to wake

Darkness, eerily

Shades of grey, warily

Waiting

Sitting next to each other

In chains, horribly

The poor man looks at the god in the gloom

And laughs

Beached Whale

A poem from January 2017

I'm lying on a beach in Cornwall

Full of blubbery goodness

It must have been that wrong turning I took at Albuquerque

It's uncomfortable

I can't move

Struggling for breath

I seem to have attracted some attention

Some people are sorry for me

Others just want to take a selfie with me

I don't feel much like smiling for the camera

Some idiot sprayed graffiti on my body

I can't see what it says

I feel like I'm ebbing away

So long, and thanks for all the fish

I must be delirious

I'm seeing strange visions

I can see girls being trafficked for sex

I can see a war zone

I can see people beating up a boy because of the colour of his skin

People swallowed up in a powerful delusion

I can see a vast ocean where species squabble over ownership

I see the workers uniting but having nothing substantial to fight for

I see humanity lost

Disappearing up its own backside

Self imploding

Arguing over nothing

But they are the intelligent ones!

It must be my brain

Starved of oxygen

I see a white tunnel

I see light

I see loving arms