Monthly Archives: September 2017

“We are all equal” he said

“We are all equal” he said.
We nodded our collective head
For who can disagree
That all are equal? But what about free?

“Society is unfair” he said.
Once more, a nod of the collective head.
But who will give up his bed
For the tramp who carries his load
Along yonder road?

“Much of the map was once red
And the English have blood on their hands” he said.
So we dwelt on empire’s shame
And absolved today’s corrupt dictators of all blame,
For Mugabe is a saint
And it is quaint
To believe that the empire did any good
For, of course it produced only blood.

“Let us raise a toast
To the ghost
Of Marx” he said.
I shook my head
And headed for bed.

Of Death and Sex

Gravestones I can not see
Look back at me.
Tomb rhymes with womb,
Or is it the other way around?
Both death and sex are profound
Yet today
We go out of our way
To Avoid speaking of the final sleep.

Stories of sex do our need
For entertainment feed.
We are “shocked”
By a footballer’s disgrace,
Although the smile on our face
Mocks the “shocked”.

The papers care
About morality and titillate
Their readers over their breakfast plate
With stories of how a paedophile was caught
And brought to court
By vigilantes who perhaps encourage the week to do
What they might not otherwise do
By pretending to be an underage kid.
No matter for we are rid
Of another “monster” from our midst.

The gravestones continue to stare,
While the populace care
More
About the celebrity’s whore.
Perhaps it is a fear of what the grave has in store
That causes the tabloid readers
(Those bottom feeders)
To read
Articles about how the underclass do breed
And gaze at half-naked celebrities capers
In what some call “newspapers”.

Meanderings of a Reactionary

What can I say?
The household has lost it’s way.
The old squire sits, paralysed,
His eyes fixed on the vanishing prize
Of what could be
Where he
To begin to believe
And cease to grieve.
For what has been
May once more be seen.

Order has broken down
In the servant’s hall.
Everyone wants the butler’s crown
And King Anarchy holds thrall
Over all.

Once the household as clockwork ran.
Each man
Knew his place.
One might trace
In a face
A sense that things where unfair,
But the squire would swear
That everyone had a job
Be he labourer or nob
(but no, he will not dare
So to say
For far away,
He hears the mob bay).

(Note: in this context, the word “nob” implies a person of wealth and/or high social position).

Ethereal

In honour of the changing seasons, here is my poem, “Ethereal”:

“Sunlight slants through branches.
The ethereal girl dances
As the poet romances
Her
Out of the summer air.

The trill
Of an evening blackbird
Is heard.
Then without a word
She is gone,
Though in his heart she lives on.

Perchance
She will dance
Once more
When Autumn winds roar,
And clothed in russet gown
We will lie down
And forever, sleep”.

(“Ethereal” can be found in “Refractions”, which is available from Amazon, as an ebook and can be found here, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01L5UC2H2).

LongAgo

Long ago
I used to know
A lady who thought that Communism was best.
So, we sat drinking fine wine
(Enjoying the trappings of the west),
And I would smile while
She argued that the Berlin wall
Must not fall
As it protected,
The system she respected.

She was neither bad nor mad
But I, as a mere lad
Could see
The people of the east were not free.
A precocious teenager I was
Who argued because
I believed,
And also I perceived
That it was fun
To have adults on the run.

Now the wall has come down
And secret policemen drown
Their sorrows in champagne,
And use their brain
For financial gain.

My old friend
Saw Communism’s end.
I wonder does she remember a precocious teen
Who did preen,
Yet maintained a dream
That tyranny would end
And believed,
That for all its faults
The West
Was best?

Dreams

There are dreams, streams
Of consciousness of which I shall not speak,
For I am weak
And would not have you know
Where I go
In sleep,
Lest you weep
For my dark heart.

I shall not tell you of my nightmares
For you have cares
Of your own
And, when alone
I would not have thee see
What tortures me.

I shall not open my heart
For you have dark
Thoughts enough of your own.
So let us leave our demons alone
Until they creep
Out in sleep
And we, in earnest weep.