Harry and Vladimir

Don't be too hasty to boast about

the enemy soldiers killed.

Consider that each was somebody's brother,

darling son to a loving mother

and possibly husband to wife.

But curse those leaders who sacrifice

everyone else's life.

Proposition

If a person has been convicted of murder by a jury, the judge in the case shall consider the likelihood of a mis-carriage of justice and if there is no reasonable doubt about the certainty of the verdict, (s)he shall impose the death sentence. This shall apply to the convicted of any age.

Tweets 11

Brownian motion ?

-----------------------

The crust of wholemeal bread

zig-zags around the lawn

propelled by the random pecking

of all the garden sparrows.

Most men lead undistinguished lives.

Very few achieve any fame.

Ask not for whom the bell tolls;

you wouldn't know their name.

Snails are higher class than slugs

because they own their own homes.

Life is a terminal disease

with beneficial side effects.

Terminal

-----------

What do you do

when there's nothing to look forward to?

How do you cope

when there isn't any hope?

The sprays of green buds

on the elderberry bush

look like neat models

of atomic molecules.

It doesn't matter who is right.

It only matters what is right.

To view the past as discrete decades

is topiary trying to shape unruly years.

All that fuss for a few minutes of friction.

It's like they say - you have to laugh

to stop yourself from crying.

I never told so many jokes

as when my wife was dying.

Recent culture

-----------------

when children think they're adults

and adults act like kids.

Repeated thawing and re-freezing of the level snow

has propagated a tufted carpet of  icy 'plants'

evenly spaced with sharp toothed pointed 'leaves' -

a new white lawn of frozen 'succulents'.

While novelty is exciting,

routine is oh so soothing.

Better an escort, prostitue

with a real woman's personality

than dark, abusive fantasies,

macho masturbatory.

 

Car driver's gripe

I do empathise with cyclists when

their aim is to cut our air pollution

but if I'm driving a country lane

they are a cause of much frustration.

And it's always annoying at having to crawl

behind one going uphill at no speed

but it's just the last straw to trail after

one taking his dog for a walk on the lead !

Beach Boy ?

There's one little fellow goes to my gym

who might be even older than me !

Certainly he's more frail, him,

and I was astonished later to see

that when we both left the gym together

and I drove away in my cheap old car,

he drove his red two seater sports car -

no John B sloop but a little deuce coupe !

Buddleia

Butterfly bush living up to its name

lured by sunshine various came -

small tortoiseshell, whites, a peacock or two,

red admirals mainly, more than a few.

How is it that so much of British culture

has recently become so juvenile ?

Besides the soaps and TV game shows

why are adults reading Harry Potter,

playing and comparing video games,

following proliferating superheroes

and indulging in alien fantasies -

while the juveniles watch pornography ?

Tweets 10

So kind, polite, so very thoughtful

stopping to let the side car in,

failing to check the rearview mirror

for how many cars she's delaying.

Tired ?

I go to the gym although lethargic

'cause afterwards fatigue's electric.

As I get older and older

I seem to care less and less

about ever more and more.

Of course we're all fed up with winter -

even the clouds are heading south.

           Escort

           --------

Not embarrassed, not ashamed,

standing naked, beautiful.

Knowing they're out of reach though entrancing

I gaze at youth and beauty dancing.

Still I also know when push comes to shove

I can always buy sex. But where to buy love ?

Overland camping group

The semi-circle of camping chairs

focusses on the cooking food

(more tuna and stir fry cabbages)

but also keeps attention glued

on the group itself and avoids the stares

of the gathering local 'savages'.

Like a circle of covered wagons from

the wild west of the USA

the defensive wall keeps the enemy out

and allows us not to give away

food we don't want or lose aplomb

if someone challenges with a shout.

Our culture encourages selfishness

and makes us inhospitable.

Perhaps if we faced outwards instead

we'd find the poor more pitiable

and see spoiled self-indulgence less

important than them being better fed.

We had a date. She wasn't on time.

I waited an hour. She didn't come.

I felt a fool but it's not a crime

and after a year an hour's not long.

The orb web spiders are back outside the kitchen windows

spinning their huge web wonders of concentric circles

like massive shining whorls of insect fingerprints

that trap the morning sun in thirty filaments of silver.

Evening draws the trappers from the window edges

dangling masters in their natural masterpieces.

Such wonders does the Earth provide to those that see.

Nobody loses all the time

"I should be so lucky - lucky, lucky, lucky"

I really don't know where I'm going to put them all.

"For once in my life  . . ." my luck has really changed.

All these prizes I keep winning in the junk e-mails.

' . . . a thousand ships'

It surely wasn't the face alone

that launched a thousand ships.

No doubt the face was beautiful

but not enough on its own.

Beauty in women requires a body

as well as striking facial features,

an undulating tempting figure

to drive a man to folly.

And as for her personality,

her interests, values, wants and dreams, 

her understanding - do they matter?

Not necessarily.

It might be the frequent situation -

no deeper knowledge of character

is necessary to trigger shallow

male infatuation.

The dearth of frankness

The last five incalls have all disappointed:

the first one didn't answer at all;

the next two had faked their online photos;

the fourth advertised from counties away;

the fifth had refused to take "fake money"

and then was assaulted - hence the need

for some sort of voucher rather than cash.

Oh, the deceit, the deceit !

And then Misty Kurtz, she fled.

.

Tweets 9

" . . . . that the night come."

Anticipation of excitement for the sexually active.

Resignation of the daylight for the age-weary passive.

"No bad weather. Just bad clothes."

Coming from Sweden that's them that knows.

The bright sunlight straight ahead

made the dew on the grass shine satin.

Chores are useful to fill up the time;

better being chored than bored.

A magpie flying, white belly shining,

dragging his tail behind him

I had to laugh at the porno video

where the man was fucking the woman's arse

and the woman was yawning from boredom.

DEATH OF A LOVED ONE

is the never-again of seeing, touching, talking to

I still cannot believe I'll never see you more

leaving me unsure of what I'm living for

POETRY

Brave empty words that shrivel to the trivia of everyday life

EPITAPH

That twat that tweets on Twitter

I'm less of an explorer than a discoverer.

If there's any way of doing something wrong,

I'll find it.

Say, Mr. Tambourine Man,

what sort of songs can a tambourine play?

Different rhythms for sure but a tune - no way !

You've got just the one note and though we could dance,

we'd all need to be in some sort of trance.

Bar Staff

Proud and sleek as a viking longship

she cuts through the roiling waves of customers,

searching both sides for abandoned glasses

then back in her wash to the wash.

No war lasts forever.

One side wins or all sides tire.

Righteous causes sever

loving feelings and hates expire.

No love lasts forever

if love is passion. Passion wanes.

Love and war were ever

struggles ending unsure who gains.

How dare this child be born pushing through pain,

butting into the world a bloody stain !

Nature will punish the crimesince never loth

to issue life and death sentences both.

When young the future is infinite,

the space beyond the horizon,

but in time a faint mist forms,

thickening to a dark cloud

like a wild animal silently,

slowly padding toward you.

Tweets 8

Dying might be difficult

but death is nothing

SAVANNAH

None too likely to be a star

but decorative way above par

and always ready to serve you a jar -

beauties behind the bar.

Some media play upon our fears

of illness, cancer, heart disease,

but it isn't play at all to them -

it's business, if you please !

POP SONG LYRICS

The words young girls so long to hear

but real-life boys so rarely say.

ILLOGICAL

If some-one is trying to murder me,

I am justified in killing him.

But if he does actually kill me,

he's then protected from being executed.

I really wish I could sleep on my back

but it's one ability I somehow lack.

No matter how long I've sometimes tried

I always end up turning on my side.

I don't like young attention seekers,

thinking they shouldn't be so vain

but have to admit that when they're older

they could be stars that entertain.

She wasn't at all attractive

but her attention massaged my ego.

 

Birdsong

I like to hear the cheep of a sparrow,

the cheerful trill of a robin.

I enjoy the warble of a blackbird,

the echo of a songthrush.

I now miss the twitter of a skylark

and I've never heard a nightingale.

But it's all just pleasant British birdsong,

less than human musical feats,

and exaggeration is surely wrong

as done by Shelley and Keats.

A different sort of war

This is not Ukraine, the Yemen, World War Three

but nonetheless millions fighting for their lives.

Not really some conventional struggle to be free

but a war of attrition fought by husbands and wives.

No advances, just rearguard action to retain territory

with forces continually degraded by the enemy.

Eventual defeat is certain; useless to rage.

This is the war that no-one wins - old age.

Hung higher than any other works of art

and on display in daylight every day

they calmly soothe and lift the troubled heart

but often are ignored by busy crowds -

the amazing everchanging artwork of the clouds.

 Some papers try to get our attention

with headlines addressing our worries

about our ageing health that mention

all kinds of scary medical flurries

of news about the latest findings

that play upon our fears for the future:

arthritis, heart attacks, dementia

and the dreaded Big C - cancer.

So pity the harrassed poor sub-editor

who has to come up with something catchy

to grab the interest of the reader

and please a boss who's probably tetchy.

One day the headline to cap them all

I'm sure will happen by and by

in letters several inches tall -

'EVERYONE'S  GOING  TO  DIE'

Heaven was a very tempting idea

to raise the dead in some sort of form.

Hell was invented to instill fear

and make the living conform.

Un-Donne

If ever any beauty I did see

which I desired but didn't get, it's usually

because she's quite a few decades too young for me.

The times thay aren't a-changing

"bread and cicuses" used to please the population

so human nature hasn't changed except in expectation

of over-priced takeaway pizza in place of bread

and 24/7 TV for the almost brain dead.

The Graduate

"Plastics, my boy ! that's the thing for the future.

Get into plastics. You'll make a bomb."

But he couldn't imagine the medical bombshell

that microplastics would get into you,

your lungs and your blood as research has now shown.

Convenience profits, effects unknown.

Women take enormous care

to hide their genitals from men.

Quite unnecessary when

there's little to see but a streak of hair.

 My house is full of embarrassing failures -

instruments I never learned to play,

seeds that failed to germinate,

books bought but not read,

plants that died

and me.

Weekend

Another Friday, rain pouring down,

another night in this seaside town

immersed in the usual disco pub

and overwhelmed by this musical hub.

I'm bathing in ber and beautiful women

while soaking in cider with others swimming

against the sad tide with our unlucky looks

seeking romance outside our books.

I'm drowning in the depths of cleavage,

only saved by the jetsam waistage

floating free from the fishing smacks

till washed ashore on bare white backs.

I struggle to stay afloat all evening

till the lights go up and it's time for leaving.

I really need a personal lifeguard

to take in hand this ageing ba(sta)rd.

The kites are winging

robins singing

tadpoles swimming

daylight clinging

great tits' mating calls are ringing

The clouds are thinning

sunshine winning

faces grinning

coats off flinging

goodbye Winter, Spring is springing

Putin

Not such a clever man our Vladimir

thinking to get his way by threats and fear

instead of making the world appreciate

his just concern about the future state

of Russia's national security

if Ukraine allows American weaponry

to be installed up to the vey border

of his country. Out of order !

Time will tell he chose the wrong course.

Should have mobilised world opinion

instead of military force.

It's strange how cats like walking on

freshly raked soil

much as children like treading on

crumbly new molehills.

But the difference surely is that a cat

doesn't want to spoil

what's underfoot in order to get

a sense of power that thrills.

Gardening

Non-gardeners think that gardening's

all about sowing and planting things

whereas the battle hardened know

that's just a skirmish to make things grow.

Real action comes later with marauding thugs -

rampant weeds and ravenous slugs.

Things that flow give pleasure in the flowing -

rivers, summer clouds, ice dancers.

Things that show give pleasure in the showing -

flowers, autumn trees, beauty.

Things that grow give pleasure in the growing -

plants, animals, children.

After all those years of seeing you

as a dominating sexual bastard,

today while working my allotment

I had a moment of revelation.

Not every job can be done standing up.

Weeding demands some kneeling down.

Now I see you as amateur gardener -

get down on it, green James Brown.