Poetry

Tuesday, 16 May 2023

Extinction Rebellion

 Welcome to the Climate change activists ball

Entry requirements:

First you must have previously spent the majority of your working life

Working for either an oil company or

alternatively an airline


From this you must have earnt enough money to

afford a safe and secure home

And a safe and secure pension

Then you need to retire

And then feel guilty enough about

Your nice comfortable home

And the world's poor

And the whole inequality of life

That leaves you in the Haves

and the rest of humanity in the have nots

That you then protest about what got you into that 

position in the first place

But about which

You are doing nothing 

such as selling your home and giving the proceeds to 

Some poor folk


Instead stay strong and secure and wear the mask of Rebellion

Without really living your working life as one

Tuesday, 9 May 2023

River dive

 By the bed of the river I lie, boys

By the beds of the river I lie

By the bed of the river,

when my soul is all a quiver

By the bed of the river I lie


Oh why has the river run dry, boys?

Why has the river run dry

The mountain was a giver

And the tall pines shiver

Tell me why has the river run dry?


I hold my breath and go under

I hold my breath and then I dive

Down in the river, 

when my soul is all a quiver

Down in the river I dive

Saturday, 29 April 2023

Josie George is missing

 Josie George is missing

I read it in the news

I remember beauty

No more black and blues

The sum of life is pretty

It is the thing that lights the fuse

Of Josie George is missing 

I heard it in the news


What if I were missing

Would anyone really care

I've been thinking a lot about quitting

But I think I'd miss being there


She once squeezed much stomach

I felt affronted but also thrilled

Why would she do that thing

Fuck I lost the plot I was killed

By my own denial of attraction 

From when I was a boy

As if it mattered the compaction

Of a certain quantity of joy

I never pursued my own

Dreams

Was always willing to be somebody's toy

But now Josie George is missing

I know she's dead her life destroyed

Morning

 I don't want to break your heart

but I think 

I have to

I am where I start

and where I get to

I don't need a poisoned dart

I have the morning dew

 And that is where love departs

And where time is due


It's a far cry

 lesserback gull


the short straw


draw the match

parents say to the child you drew the match


Tired

 The dog is rising to the moon

The silver ships they leave too soon

Children cry and laugh

And Seagulls do the same

While I am taking a bath

As I try to remember my name

Childhood heroes

 Captain Scarlet's doing time for grand larceny

Probably he's down for espionage

Or trying to hijack the BBC

Aqua marina was caught exposing herself on Clevedon pier

Now she's doing community service

cleaning up the marine mere


Oh Sting Ray, lovely Sting Ray

I can't say this no more than a quip

It was caught speeding while trying

To rescue the earth on a highway

And now it's locked up in a skip


And now I know my childhood isn't near

It's off on another plain

I have no need for anything to fear

And anyway here comes the rain


The Thunderbirds were very cool

Just like the phoenix from the fire

They tried to stop the terrorists

In their pursuit all across the world with righteous ire


They were hired by the British intelligence

To track down Osama, of course they got caught

up

in all kinds of stuff

And now they're serving time in Guantanamo

Oh Thunderbirds, where did they go?


Oh where did my childhood heroes go?

I see them all behind bars

Even the Gingerbread man has gone AWOL 

I think he was caught stealing cars

The gingerbread gang are terrorising us 

What a sight it is to behold

Perhaps I'd have liked it better

If they had never showed us

That at the end of the rainbow

Would be waiting a pot of gold


Perhaps it would best if the illusion was crushed

Perhaps it would be better I'm told

Than over protect the young minds

With the world's half truths

When they tell us that not everything

 that glitters is gold


See the apple orchards and the starlings

they're flocking from tree to tree

like a long lost friend, 

like a long lost memory

Somewhere down long winding lanes

I wish they'd come back to me before the end