Tag Archives: life

The Bird

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The bird
doesn’t mind

the indifference
of passing feet,
tossed flint-eyed scraps,
nest of a broadsheet

The bird
doesn’t mind
cold-hearted weather,
garbage-can dining,
piss-soaked shelter,
one-eyed sleep in the underpass,
the ubiquitous predator

The bird
doesn’t mind
existence
on the streets

He’s just a bird

Weekly Photo Challenge: Self-Portrait

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They say

we know
who we are
in adulthood –

sister,
not brother,
wife,
not mother  –

a prosaic mosaic,
fragments of a self

but don’t ask me
to complete the picture –

time has lost
more than a few pieces

Old Oaks

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Young oaks, fresh-leafed

uniformed
in naive acorn pride
stand tall in single file
guardians in memoriam
of those who died

– in Time –

gnarled with salt of tears
whorled in winds of sorrow
and furrowed with fires of rage
young grow old
in a different
age

toward the light, away from fear

with deferential bow
to a Callery Pear


Rounds in resilience

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It’s her little joke –
every round is stroke –
the way she hits that ball
you wouldn’t know she’s had two

bionic man, quadruple
by-passed, defibrillated, has me
in stitches

at 80, his game’s
got more heart
than mine

then, on the 13th,

seasoned traveller
confides myeloma’s no
handicap to chipping
away at the children’s
inheritance

golf’s putting
this stupid game
in perspective

but it ain’t no Sunday
drive

What if?

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What if
you were gifted
a second life?

Would you,

having sifted
time’s hindsight,

re-map the course
thus far taken,
and without remorse
sail dreams forsaken,

hoist new masts
on life’s oceans blue,
endeavouring to chart
a different you,

to brave life’s wild
and raging seas,
or float with mild
and soothing breeze?

What if
you were given
a second
life?

Posted for SidevieW’s Weekend Theme

Sometimes

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Sometimes,
we turn away from work,
inhale others’ gardens,
look out at iridescent birds,
shapes cast by the sun

Sometimes, we ignore our chores,
cycle the distant suburbs,
look at how another tenth live,
eat exotic foods on the streets

Sometimes, we forgo the car,
ride the ferries and trains,
look for treasures in labyrinthine shops,
play tourist for a day

Sometimes, we shun the inner life,
chase the little white ball,
look right, look left  (up at that thieving crow),
rarely straight down the middle

Sometimes, we blow the budget,
wine and dine on the Quay,
watch the passing parade,
the city at play

Sometimes, we forget ourselves,
lie outside in the dark,
look up, and beyond
to the edge of the universe

and close our eyes
in peace

Lost and Found

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Deep within caliginous soul,

I lost it, broken-hearted,

 

braced against the winter’s chill

of life’s great joys departed

 

And long remained it out of sight,

I could almost it forget,

 

but for dreamscapes late at night,

its engrams in my head

 

But journeys lit that which I lost,

dispersed its shrouding mists

 

If I were to believe in ghosts,

I’d see your hand in this

 

Unspeakable

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Two friends, two lives

one, a garden variety drama,

the other,

a monstrous horror movie

profanity

unfolding slowly

picking off  joys one by one

like psychopathic forces of nature

stripping away

what should have been

for one so precious:

limbs like the wind, a planet-sized brain

that crazy infectious laughter

atrophied

by the madness of grief and disbelief

I could no longer watch,

even through my fingers