NO MANS LAND

No mans land,
A desolate place
An unforgiving place
Where stout hearts
Chill and falter
To glimpse at hell

Doom awaits us there
On that alien field
Where death falls like rain
In shrapnel shards
And bullets speak
Of whispered demise

No mans land,
A desolate place
Where men drown
In mud, blood and tears
Blood shed for country
Tears shed for kin

THERE’S NOTHING LIKE A PANCAKE

There’s nothing like a pancake
With lemon curd spread on
And no greater disappointment
When it turns out to be Dijon

THE DOVE OF PEACE

The dove of peace
Flying on lordly wings
Delivered an olive branch
Which delivered the world

A Little Sport

I LIKE THE SPORTING BANTER

I like the sporting banter
Surrounding sporting Rivalry
But there is a fine line
Separating it from tribalry

GOLF MODE

A man got on the bus
And sat down next to Bimbette
He smiled warmly at her
And briefly their eyes met

Full of golf balls
His bulging front trouser pockets
Caught her attention
Her eyes almost left their sockets

He said "its golf balls."
And Bimbette said “Oh”
Then continued, "Does it hurt
As much as tennis elbow?"

The Love Selection # 7

THE FLAME WAS EXTINGUISHED

Guttering slowly to its end
The flame was extinguished
A fire once white hot
Headed toward extinction
As passions cool
In the diminishing heat
Of the sombre ashes
Red fades to grey
To leave despairingly
Loves dying embers
Its flame long extinguished

SALT ‘N’ PEPPER HEADED LADY FAIR

All I can do is stand and stare
At the salt ‘n’ peppered lady fair
The woman with the greying hair
Oh beautiful lady standing there
With tresses of salt ‘n’ pepper hair
Please be the answer to my prayer

HOW VIVIDLY I RECALL

How vividly I recall
Seeing you standing there
Dressed in white silk
I still feel the despair
Watching the woman I love
Stood for all to see
Making her vows
To a man who wasn’t me
AFTER AN AFFAIR

After an affair
All too brief
Barely any more
Than an aperitif
She stole my heart
Like a common thief
To leave me
Alone in my grief

A Humourous Collection # 11

DESCENDING SCALE

The piano fell down
The mineshaft
And I know that
It sounds a bit daft

There was a cacophony
From the Bechstein-er
That eventually resulted
In A flat miner

FISCAL TRUTH

If you spend more than you earn
There’s no way to fudge it
You are stuck with your debts
If you can't manage to budge it

EGGS FOR EGGS

I like my eggs fried or poached
And scrambled are a treat
I rather enjoy an omelet
But boiled egg is hard to beat

LOCAL AMENITIES

I’ve just been to the shops
They didn’t impress me at all
But if you’ve seen one shopping centre
You’ve seen a mall

TROUBLESOME YOUTH

Police were called to the kindergarten
And the reason for the request
Was a troublesome three-year-old
Who was resisting a rest

INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT # 2

Did you hear about the guy?
Who was guillotined and how
His whole left side was cut off
Obviously he's all right now

FAST TRACK

I had to run for the train
And I had my laptop with me
And now it doesn’t work
I must have jogged the memory

POLITICAL IDEOLOGY

In a democracy,
It’s your vote that counts;
Which seems perfectly fair
In feudalism,
It’s your Count that votes.
Did you see what I did there?

SNACK TIME

When he’s making clocks
And hunger beacons
The clock man will
Go back four seconds.

INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT # 1

One of the guys fell into
The upholstery machine,
He was quickly discovered

And they knew what to do
To get him out the machine
Now he’s fully recovered

A Varied Collection

TRUE COOL

They’re the “in crowd”
The cool ones
The clique

Wearing the right clothes
Saying the right things
Defining cool

The un-cool sit
On the outside looking in
Wishing to be “in”

They bully and barrack
And show off to the crowd
The shallow crew

Sneering at cleverness
Shaming the boffins
In front of their crowd

Soon they will know
They have no future
They’re the cool fools

Don’t be envious
Stay with your piers
Friendship rocks

Just stand fast
Stick with your friends
That’s true cool

SOLITUDE IS NOT A NEGATIVE

Solitude is not a negative
That’s something I’ve always known
And for the sake of your sanity
Escape the combat zone
And once in a while
Spend some time alone

DARKNESS EVADES THE LIGHT

Darkness evades the light
It retreats into tight corners
And hides just out of reach
Where the light stops short
And the darkness waits
Patiently biding its time
As the day ebbs away
And the shadows lengthen
Until the darkness rules again

AT LONG DISTANT HILLS

In my youth I looked fearlessly
At long distant hills
Squinting to bring them into focus
With a feeling of contempt
But old age has quickly delivered me
To those once distant hills
As now I stand before them
And I am fearful
Feeling contempt for myself
For not embracing every step
Along that short journey
But its only idle reflection
And regret is useless
For the hills are no longer distant
And now the race is almost run

WITH SALT WATER BLOOD

With salt water blood
The valiant mariners
Are bound to the sea
By unseen chains
And serve their mistress
In sun and rain
But when gales blow
And storm and tempest
Batters and bloodies
They pray to the master
To be carried to shore
And when land sits
Beneath their feet
They crave a deck
And a rolling sea
And are drawn back
To their mistress

IN THE AUTUMN OF MY YEARS

In the autumn of my years
In the twilight of the setting suns
Will I become that which I despise?
A burden to my loved ones

THE RAVAGES OF TIME

Each year shall be recorded
In your now pretty face
Soon your youth will vanish
Fading without a trace
And with each passing year
You will slowly lose the race
You will fall further behind
Until you are in last place
And a lifetime will be recorded
In your now pretty face