Lockdown

 It's an achievement

just getting through another day

but then this is my only life

just leaking away.

Flotsam

A driftwood log far out from shore,

a landgrown thing now lost at sea

as helpless out of element

as you make me.

With others I can chat and joke;

with you I don't know what to say.

The words won't come because you take

my breath away.

So now I wallow in the waves,

floundering where the currents flow

and drift uncaring in these seas

I do not know.

It's not just climate change that we're at war with;

there's so much plastic in the sea'

so many species threatened with extinction

and all because of our fecundity.

We have so many problems to do more with;

no use relying on technology.

It's not enough to save this ailing Earth with -

replacing gas with electricity.

There's only one thing we can still be sure with;

the rest is almost triviality.

It's overpopulation is the problem -

reducing too many people is the key.

Men in shorts

A man in shorts shows summer sense,

gains vitamin D in keeping cool

but men in shorts still in the winter

perhaps lack trousers, train as sprinter

or else just think they're looking cool

when really they lack common sense. 

Adolescence

I didn't talk to you

or touch you for I knew

that if I did the world

would crack and we be hurled

into a sinking sea

to watch each other drown.

Perhaps you dreamed of joy

believing girl and boy

could float on tidal waves

and find a beach that saves.

Now I can't face your free

uncomprehending frown.

Swim Stroke

Who chose such a silly name?

Fluttering used to label strength;

frailty mis-applied to power

plunging headlong down the length.

Surely nature can do better -

some improvement would be 'penguin'.

Or else use 'porpoise'. Why not 'dolphin' ?

Butterflies can't even swim !

A robin flew into my shed yesterday;

it seemed to have little fear.

I bet it's the one built a nest last year

in a cupboard along the passageway.

Today it's searching the border for leaves

to put into a nest box on the fencej

half hidden so showing a bit of sense

in trying to outwit the magpie thieves.

And now I can see another one

creeping up through the undergrowth

and into the box to rate its worth

as a possible summer home to live in.

Presumably it's the first bird's mate

since he's perched nearby just looking on -

oh, now she's sneaking out and -gone !

But maybe I can anticipate

some more activity in the spring

if they choose to bring up a brood -

the adults flying in with food,

the chirping of the hungry nestlings.

I like to feel some sort of connection

with wildlife; doubtless a common trait.

But in this lockdown while we wait

for normal life, it lightens dejection